The Markets

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa)  – De Beers’ Chief Executive Officer said an improvement in diamond sales demonstrates that the poor demand for smaller stones that has plagued the company and its competitors in recent months is stabilizing. Bruce Cleaver, the CEO of the world’s biggest diamond company, said the poor demand for stones valued at less than $100 a carat has been due to a surfeit of supply, currency weakness in India and the…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The global financial industry must move faster and prepare for the demise of the scandal-tarred interest-rate system that underpins $370 trillion in derivative, bond and loan contracts. The London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, is expected to stop being the go-to benchmark by the end of 2021, Eric Litvack, chairman of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, said on April 11 in Hong Kong. Changes needed to prepare for the deadline are…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – By now you’ve almost certainly heard (and heard) about Modern Monetary Theory. Opinions on the validity of MMT are a dime a dozen, but how to trade MMT has been Wall Street’s great unknown, according to Bloomberg Opinion’s Brian Chappatta. So here it is. A discussion with investors on how to allocate, invest and hedge if MMT comes to pass — assuming it hasn’t already. Prepare for MMT? It’s already here “It…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in AfricaA)  – At their peak, Kenya’s Uchumi Supermarkets Plc, retailer Deacons East Africa Plc, Mumias Sugar Co. and Eveready East Africa Ltd. were market leaders in their industries and well-known brands in East Africa’s largest economy. Today, the companies are penny stocks. Uchumi has lost 97 percent of its value in the past five years and slumped to a fresh record low in Nairobi Wednesday. Deacons and Mumias shares trade at less…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The story of how two prospectors, down to their last nickels, discovered diamonds in Canada’s frozen north is the stuff of legend. Back in 1982, Chuck Fipke and Stewart Blusson laid low in a pup tent by day while their competitor De Beers hauled 45-gallon drums of rock samples to a nearby outpost for transport to South Africa. Using the long hours of summer sunlight north of the 65th parallel, the two searched…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, Nigeria’s biggest grower of the sweetener, said illegal, low-quality imports are putting pressure on its selling price while a traffic gridlock around its production site in Lagos is hampering delivery of goods to customers. “Sales and production volumes were constrained’’ in 2018 because of “these challenges,’’ the company said in emailed presentation. It plans to “work with the regulatory agencies to compact smuggled sugar’’ this…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Oil in New York headed for the longest weekly winning streak since November 2017 as crises from Venezuela to Libya threatened supplies, while optimism over U.S.-China trade talks buoyed the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate futures were little changed, poised for a fifth weekly increase. OPEC cut production for a fourth month in March, while supply risks are mounting in member nations exempt from the strategy. Power failures that plagued Venezuela…