Author: The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa)  – Nigeria’s benchmark stock index dropped 0.7 percent Tuesday, the most in a week, as election results showed President Muhammadu Buharibuilding a lead over his main opponent and investor favorite Atiku Abubakar. “People are just reacting to Buhari leading the results,” said Olabisi Ayodeji, an analyst at Exotix Capital. “Investors’ preference would have been for an Atiku win, considering that he is perceived to be more market friendly, and also seen as having…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa)  – Allegations of financial wrongdoing at Africa’s biggest fund manager created a fearful work environment, with employees being disgruntled, suspicious and unproductive, a former board member told an inquiry. Before the claims by an anonymous whistle-blower, South Africa’s Public Investment Corp., which has more than 2 trillion rand ($144 billion) in assets, had been a stable and productive organization with a unified board that could debate professionally at scheduled meetings, Dudu…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African platinum producers, the world’s biggest miners of the metal, have asked a court to block a planned strike by one of the country’s biggest mining unions that the companies say would further hurt the struggling industry. Anglo American Platinum Ltd., the world’s top platinum-group metals supplier, and other producers want the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union to be denied the legal right to start a seven-day strike at…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Hopes of a trade truce between China and the U.S. and a more dovish Federal Reserve are giving South Africa’s rand a boost — and President Cyril Ramaphosa some breathing space as he struggles to stabilize the state-owned electricity company while curbing government debt levels. Given the outlook for South Africa’s economy — sluggish growth, a widening fiscal deficit, and the threat of a credit-rating downgrade to junk — the rand shouldn’t be a…

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwe has no plans to intervene in the market for what’s effectively a new currency, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said. “Anything that we do in terms of coming into the market is to manage the volatility, but not to intervene,” he told reporters Tuesday after a weekly cabinet meeting in the capital, Harare. “The government is staying out of the market because we are too big — if we…