The Markets

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – OPEC expects supplies from its rivals to increase by the most in five years in 2019, with extra oil from the U.S. alone sufficient to meet the growth in global demand. In its first detailed outlook for 2019, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries indicated that the North American oil boom means OPEC members are already producing enough crude to cover what will be needed from them. That could still change,…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – It’s the question commodity investors dread: what happens if China slows and prices crash? S&P Global Ratings crunched the numbers for just that scenario and found the world’s five top miners including Glencore Plcand BHP Billiton Ltd. would be able to get by without a ratings cut. As prices will “run out of steam” sooner or later, S&P modelled a one-year collapse caused by a sudden shock to Chinese demand “as that’s…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – MTN Group Ltd.’s Nigerian wireless unit hasn’t yet submitted an application for an initial share sale, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Sunday in a statement. MTN also has yet to announce how much it aims to raise from the listing, which MTN Group CEO Rob Shuter initially planned for the middle of this year, before pushing the deadline to the end of the year. Earlier this week, Lagos-based BusinessDay reported that the company plans…

TRIPOLI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Libya’s oil output will keep dropping day by day if major ports remain closed after clashes last month led to a political deadlock, the head of the country’s state energy producer said. “Today, production is 527,000 barrels a day, tomorrow it will be lower, and after tomorrow it will be even lower and everyday it will keep falling,” Mustafa Sanalla, chairman of the Tripoli-based National Oil Corp., said in a…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The threat that a battle over trade between the world’s biggest economies will escalate is hanging over emerging-markets’ battered assets. President Donald Trump hinted the final total of goods that would be slapped with duties could eventually reach $550 billion. That exceeds all of U.S. goods imports from China in 2017. But it’s not just the tit-for-tat duties that’s worrying investors. Some say that import tariffs on Chinese goods…