The Markets

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Negative real yields have sapped demand for naira bonds, and that’s unlikely to change over the coming months as the central bank keeps its policy rate low to boost economic growth. Returns on Nigerian local-currency bonds fell 14% in December after soaring 66% in the previous 11 months, according to a Bloomberg index tracking the debt, as investors snapped up yields that were in double digits for most of the year….

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Bitcoin fizzled in Monday trading as the famously volatile cryptocurrency pulled back after a spectacular new-year rally. Prices fell as much as 17% in the biggest drop since March before recovering. The losses are small in the context of Bitcoin’s broader rally, with a 50% jump in December alone. After a parabolic 2020, the digital currency had started the new year with a bang, surging as high as $34,000…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Gold climbed to a eight-week high, topping $1,900 an ounce, as lower U.S. real yields and a weaker dollar helped the metal build on the biggest annual advance in a decade. Silver jumped, while platinum was little changed after touching the highest since 2016. Real yields — the difference between nominal benchmark bond yields and the rate of inflation — fell close to last year’s nadir. The decline is…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) — Egypt has approached investment banks to advise on a plan to raise as much as $7 billion from international debt markets in the first half of next year, according to people familiar with the matter. The so-called request for proposal is being sent to banks, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. The offering could include the dollar and euro-denominated bonds. Officials…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Nigeria’s telecommunications regulator ordered mobile-phone users to link their devices to their national identity numbers, raising the prospect of millions of lines being blocked. Subscribers have until Dec. 31 to comply with the requirement, the Nigerian Communications Commission said in a statement Tuesday on its website. Failure to do so will result in their phone lines being cut off in January, it said. Africa’s largest economy had about 196…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Nigeria needs to compile a solid economic-recovery plan with the right foreign-exchange policies to convince the World Bank to approve a $1.5 billion loan to support the West African nation’s budget. The government has to assure the lender’s shareholders it is doing all it can to prop up Africa’s largest economy amid the devastation brought by the coronavirus pandemic, according to the World Bank country director in Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri….