The Markets

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Emerging-market investors need increasingly deeper pockets as they prepare to add stocks from the region’s largest exchange. Saudi Arabian shares have climbed 14 percent this year, partly as foreign investors bet the country will win upgrades to emerging-market status, which they expect to trigger billions of dollars of inflows from funds tracking global benchmark indexes. The buying has pushed the capitalization of Riyadh’s market beyond that of South Africa in dollar terms for…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Nigerian bourse extended its bullish run, as the NSE All-Share index advanced by 0.83%, to settle the year-to-date return at +2.42%. The market turnover increased by 33.57%, however, the volume of transactions declined by 43.39%. The market breadth stood at 1.29x, indicating twenty-seven (27) gainers and twenty-one (21) laggards. SEPLAT emerged the top gainer, as its share price appreciated by 8.14% to close at NGN769.00. The top gainers’…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Investors looking for a haven amid the rout in emerging markets over the past two months would have found one in Nigeria’s domestic debt. Naira bonds issued by the government have returned 8.4 percent in dollar terms this year, the most in the Bloomberg Barclays Global EM Local Currency Index, which includes 25 countries from Argentina to Turkey. And it’s the only local-currency debt not to have made losses…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa marked his first 100 days in office this month, and it seems the honeymoon period is over for the country’s currency too. Bolstered by renewed investor confidence in Africa’s most-industrialized economy, the rand surged to a three-year high against the dollar in February, and held most of those gains for the rest of the quarter. Since then, it’s been downhill as emerging-market assets faced headwinds including rising U.S….

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Crude pared losses as cracks in a key pipeline threatened Nigerian oil exports and a schism deepened within OPEC over whether to allow more crude to flow onto global markets. Futures erased a 1.4 percent loss in New York on Monday. New leaks have been discovered in a Nigerian pipeline that’s been shut since late last week and the operator provided no estimate for when deliveries will resume. Meanwhile, Iraqjoined Iran and…

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has pledged to spend money his government doesn’t have on increasing its 350,000 workers’ salaries as the country gears up for next month’s elections. Civil servants, who account for most formal jobs in the southern African country, will get 15 percent raises, while veterans of Zimbabwe’s war against white-minority rule will be awarded improved benefits, Mnangagwa said. His willingness to spend taxpayer money to bolster his support…