The Markets

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s battered rand may receive an unexpected boost from the central bank this week if money-market rates are anything to go by. While only three out of 19 economists in a Bloomberg survey are predicting a South African Reserve Bank rate increase on Thursday, traders have been adding bets on a surprise hike. Forward-rate agreements are now putting the odds of a 25 basis-point hike at more than 50 percent,…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Undaunted by the crash in cryptocurrencies, the company that created the first exchange-traded Bitcoin trackers now wants to offer a whole basket of digital currencies to bet on. The plan is to launch an exchange-traded product based on a basket of 5 to 10 such currencies before the end of the year, according to Stockholm-based XBT Provider AB. This is “something that the market is looking for,” said Laurent Kssis,…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – MTN Group Ltd. is considering a replacement for long-time Chairman Phuthuma Nhleko, with South Africa’s former Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas lined up as his possible successor, according to people familiar with the matter. Africa’s biggest wireless carrier by subscribers was mulling a change before the eruption last month of a crisis in Nigeria, where authorities are demanding more than $10 billion in back taxes and funds they allege were illegally transferred, said…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – When Bitcoin plunged as much as 15 percent over two days last week, a theory emerged — where else? — on the Internet: a whale was on the move. Speculation mounted that a major holder of cryptocurrency with an electronic wallet that dated back to 2011 — long before anyone had heard of HODL — was moving to sell. His or her wallet had once had as many as 111,114 Bitcoins, which at their peak…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Hurricane Florence is poised to batter the Carolina coast, potentially dampening September hiring and third-quarter gross domestic product. The prospect of fresh talks between the U.S. and China raises hopes the trade storm will blow less fiercely. We think those hopes will be frustrated. Turkey’s larger-than-expected rate hike neutralized one of the policy missteps that drove the emerging market sell off. That’s good news, but structural weakness persist, and are set to increase into 2019….

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The price of bitcoin may be down, compared with last year’s meteoric heights. But industry officials aren’t waiting for the next spike in investor demand to launch a charm offensive targeting federal lawmakers and regulators who’ve taken an interest in cryptocurrencies. Tech veterans and a number of high-profile cryptocurrency companies on Tuesday said they are forming the Blockchain Association, the first fully fledged lobbying group in Washington representing entrepreneurs…