The Markets | - Part 172

Investors Undeterred by Risks as South Africa Bond Inflows Soar

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Political turmoil, the risk of a widening budget deficit, a weakening currency and the prospect of a credit downgrade to junk would usually put investors off a country’s bonds. Not when it comes to South Africa. The lure of the highest yields among emerging-market peers is proving irresistible, with foreign investors buying a net 18 billion rand ($1.3 billion) of South African bonds in September, the most in a month…

Matt Levine’s Money Stuff: Bitcoin Traders and Index Funds

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is weighing a new trading operation dedicated to bitcoin and other digital currencies, the first blue-chip Wall Street firm preparing to deal directly in this burgeoning yet controversial market, according to people familiar with the matter. Literally, why not? Banks — Goldman especially — trade things. If there is a thing that trades — and, particularly, if it is a purely financial asset that trades…

Ivory Coast Cocoa Farmers See Bumper Crop After Slow Start

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ABIDJAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – This year’s cocoa harvest in top producer Ivory Coast may be starting slowly, but farmers say volumes will catch up in a few months and are forecasting another big crop to follow last season’s record. Heavy rains in June and July caused flowers to fall off trees and while farmers have started reaping some pods, there are a lot fewer than this time last year, said Salam Pelega, the head…

PPC Extends Battle for African Cement Maker by Ordering Review

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JOHANNESBUG (Capital Markets in Africa) – PPC Limited hired Investec Plc to review an offer by Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. for South Africa’s biggest cement maker and said other interested bidders should be granted enough time to conduct full due diligence. Investec has been appointed to consider the partial offer by Toronto-based Fairfax and the planned merger between PPC with local rival AfriSam Group Pty Ltd. that’s part of the proposal, Johannesburg-based PPC said in a statement Tuesday….

Zimbabwe Dollar Dearth Causes Shortages, Return of Inflation

Posted on by The Editorial Team

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwe’s money shortage has seen card and mobile-money payments eclipse cash sales at the nation’s retailers, throttling suppliers’ stock of hard currency needed to put goods on shelves and forcing up food prices. Cash transactions have shrunk to about 2 percent of daily takings across the 33-store Spar Zimbabwe chain, from 60 percent a year ago, Managing Director Terence Yeatman said. Consumer prices as measured by the statistics agency rose 0.1…

Foreigners Desert South Africa’s Stock Market Like Never Before

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Amid robust demand for emerging-market equities, there’s one place global investors are avoiding: Africa’s biggest stock market. With almost a full quarter to go, outflows from South Africa’s stock exchange have already reached 90.5 billion rand ($6.6 billion) this year, on track to equal last year’s record 125.8 billion rand. By comparison, net sales reached 56.6 billion rand in 2008, when emerging-market assets bore the brunt of a selloff sparked…

OPEC Oil Output Climbed in September as Libya, Nigeria Recover

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – OPEC nations pumped slightly more crude in September as Libya’s biggest oil field returned to production. Output from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was 32.83 million barrels a day in September, a gain of 120,000 barrels a day from August, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts, oil companies and ship-tracking data. Production in Libya, which along with Nigeria is exempt from output cuts, rebounded 30,000 barrels a…

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