The Markets

RABAT (Capital Markets in Africa) – Two companies are expected to go public on the Casablanca Stock Exchange this year, the Moroccan bourse’s managing director said Wednesday, in IPOs that could help revive trading and return the country to emerging market status. Karim Hajji, speaking at a conference in Marrakesh, didn’t identify the two companies. But Hamza Bennani, who heads Aradei Capital, a REIT that has property assets valued at 4 billion dirhams ($416 million), said in…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The ink drying on the phase-one U.S.-China trade deal may be good for emerging-markets generally — but it bodes ill for the rand as investors return their gaze to South Africa’s domestic challenges. The South African currency has slumped 3.6% versus the dollar this year, the worst performance among emerging-market peers after Brazil’s real, even as easing trade tensions and an improving global economy fuel demand for riskier assets. A gauge…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – No one, it seems, was able to reason with Khalifa Haftar. If the idea was for an impressive cast of big hitters to apply enough pressure to bring the 76-year-old Libyan military commander to heel, it didn’t work. On the eve of an international summit in Berlin on Sunday, Haftar followed through on months of private warnings and crippled his country’s oil supplies by shutting down half of the production….

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – After the fanfare of the U.S.-China trade deal, commodities investors pivot this week to focus on policy, priorities, profits, and production. The first two of that quartet come from Davos. This year climate change looms large, an issue of central importance for carbon-based energy, the future of farming, and how funds are changing the way that they invest. Earnings season brings numbers from copper giant Freeport-McMoRan Inc. just as investors take…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Two months can be a long time in central banking, and if you are the South African Reserve Bank it can mean bringing an interest rate cut forward and a move to signaling even more. The Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee unexpectedly cut its key rate to 6.25% from 6.5% on Thursday, a move predicted by only three of the 19 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The Reserve Bank has…

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Fiscal deficits are no longer such a worry for emerging-market investors, according to HSBC Holdings Plc. In a world of low-interest rates and quantitative easing, governments aren’t being punished for running bigger budget deficits and pushing up debt, said David Bloom, HSBC’s London-based global head of foreign-exchange strategy. Instead, investors are continuing to snap up emerging-market bonds as they search for higher yields. A case in point is South…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Nigerian Stock Exchange started lending and borrowing of shares as it seeks to reignite liquidity in Africa’s third-biggest bourse by listings. A combined 20.8 million shares are available, with Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, the nation’s biggest lender, providing 8.4 million, according to a statement on the Lagos-based NSE’s website. Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission last year announced plans for securities lending, short-selling and hedging to attract inflows. Trading volumes on the…