The Markets | - Part 175

Bitcoin and Copper in Lockstep Show Chinese Speculators’ Power

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Copper and bitcoin don’t obviously have much in common. One is an industrial metal, mined by giant trucks and used in everything from computer chips to plumbing tubes, the other a cryptocurrency that’s ’mined’ only in a virtual sense. Yet the two have been moving in near unison for the past two months. Bitcoin and copper both rallied strongly from mid-July to early September. Then when bitcoin tumbled as…

Crypto-Mania Grips Hong Kong as City Looks Beyond Banking

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – In the mid-1990s, Johnson Leung embarked on a career in shipping. In the early 2000s, he moved to finance. And now, he runs a Hong Kong startup that aims to improve how container ships are booked using blockchain technology. Many in Hong Kong hope the city can make a similar leap. The shipping and banking hub, which has struggled for years to nurture a domestic technology industry, is embracing the blockchain…

Why `Contracts for Difference’ Are Under Scrutiny

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Contracts for difference, or CFDs, have hastened the demise of an Irish bank, triggered Ponzi schemes in Chile and featured in a $100 million U.S. insider-trading racket. More recently, they’ve spooked European regulators because of the risks they pose to retail investors. There are proposals to cap potential investor losses and to ban advertising of CFDs, which are pitched to investors via television commercials and sponsorships of soccer clubs from Real Madrid to…

Unintended Result of Nigerian Dollar Hunt Is Naira Shortage

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – First Nigerian businesses were hit by a dollar shortage. Now there aren’t enough naira. A central bank requirement that companies back forward dollar purchases with naira is drying up supplies, helping to underpin a 2.1 percent gain since the local currency fell to a record low against the greenback on Aug. 9. At the same time, an increase in government borrowing is spurring banks to invest in the safety of sovereign debt rather…

Aliko Dangote Ups Bidding War for PPC With Cash, Share Offer

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Dangote Cement Plc, the Nigerian company controlled by Africa’s richest person, has written to PPC Ltd. offering South Africa’s biggest cement maker cash and shares as part of a takeover deal that is fuelling a bidding war. “We are waiting for them to get back to us, hopefully early next week,” Aliko Dangote said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in New York. “They can be part and parcel…

Oil Riches On Line as African Maritime Boundary Ruling Looms

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Petrodollars are at stake when the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea rules this Saturday on the maritime boundary between Ghana and Ivory Coast. The ruling will impact on an offshore area holding an estimated 2 billion barrels of oil and 1.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to Teneo Intelligence. Here’s what you need to know ahead of this ruling: Why A Ruling Now? Ghana…

Wall Street Braces for Emerging-Market Jolt by Dodging Dollar

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – After two years of almost uninterrupted gains in developing-nation currencies against the U.S. dollar, it’s time for a new strategy. That’s the assessment of traders who’ve grown anxious that the greenback’s 16 percent slide against a basket of emerging-market currencies since January 2016 has gone too far. The latest inflation reading in the world’s largest economy added to concern, possibly giving the Federal Reserve cover to tighten monetary policy. At the same time,…

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