The Markets

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s central bank has done a good job keeping the naira stable, but it’s paying a high price. The currency of Africa’s biggest oil producer has barely budged this year, weakening less than 1 percent against the dollar. That compares with 14 percent for South Africa’s rand and 4.3 percent for major emerging-market currencies, which have been battered by the dollar’s strength and trade tensions between the U.S. and China. The cost for…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – A South African mining contracting firm owned by the Gupta family has been put into liquidation, according to people familiar with the matter. Westdawn Investments, which also trades as JIC Mining Services (Pty) Ltd., has debt of almost 60 million rand ($4.2 million), said the people, who asked not to be named because the information isn’t public. The company received the liquidation letter on Friday from Chavonnes Badenhorst St….

JOHANNEBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Steinhoff International Holdings NV is considering the sale of properties within French furniture chain Conforama, the latest move by the embattled retailer to shore up its balance sheet, according to people familiar with the matter. The value of the portfolio is about 800 million euros ($907 million), said the people, who asked not to be named as the information isn’t public. The properties are held outside European real-estate subsidiary Hemisphere,…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – As the company moves away from oil, it can’t shake its years’ operating in the pollution- and graft-ridden nation. Perched in a helicopter sweeping over the mangrove forests of the Niger Delta, a photographer named Casey is looking for trouble. And she finds it, down among a cluster of tree trunks stained with crude. A faint disturbance in a jungle clearing turns out to be a group of men…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin bulls are looking at new technical signals in hopes that the cryptocurrency reverses its recent slump and starts pushing higher. Based on an analysis of RIG trend lines, a leading technical indicator that is a combination of the RSI and momentum studies, the momentum gauge crossed the relative strength index (RSI) gauge, which could be indicating a positive price movement is on the horizon. Bitcoin’s price rose the…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Gold miners earned the ire of investors including billionaire hedge-fund manager John Paulson for entering into bad deals that destroyed shareholder value in the past. Shareholders of the two companies announcing a merger Monday signalled they think this time may be different. Barrick Gold Corp. Executive Chairman John Thornton said his company isn’t paying a premium under its agreement to buy Randgold Resources Ltd. The decision came after the company has been criticized for its “undisciplined…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenyan stocks are being pummeled by a combination of market-unfriendly policies and a strong dollar. The country’s main equity index has fallen 14 percent this quarter, the most among 95 global indexes tracked by Bloomberg. Stocks in East Africa’s biggest economy are in a bear market after sinking 24 percent from a record high in April. They now trade at their biggest discount to frontier-market equities in almost a year, based…