The Markets

MAPUTO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Mozambican lawmakers approved constitutional changes that give political parties more power in the provinces, a step that may support a peace deal cast into doubt by the death of the main opposition leader. President Filipe Nyusi signed an open-ended truce in 2016 with the Mozambican National Resistance, or Renamo, whose leader, Afonso Dhlakama, died on May 3. Renamo’s armed wing fought the government in a 16-year civil war that claimed as many…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – It’s been a miserable quarter so far for South African bonds, but the worst may be over. After a selloff that started in April and wiped out this year’s gains, yields on benchmark securities fell on Tuesday as Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene delivered good news on the country’s fiscal deficit. Rates may fall further, provided global factors that roiled emerging markets in recent weeks don’t worsen, according to Standard Bank…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) –  Royal Dutch Shell Plc declared curbs on the flow of Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude, disrupting post-conflict recovery in the West African country’s oil industry. Shell’s local unit on Thursday declared force majeure on Bonny Light exports following the shutdown of the Nembe Creek Trunk Line by the operator, Aiteo Eastern E&P Co. It came just days after loadings of the country’s Forcados crude were said to be delayed. Forcados and Bonny are…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The world’s largest energy producers will probably start hitting the gas on new projects, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Suppliers are better placed than buyers to bear the cost and risk of new liquefied natural gas projects, and may drive the next wave of investment, the bank said in a note. While the industry’s aware of the need for more output, the traditional model, where financing for new LNG…