The Markets

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Confidence in South Africa’s civil construction sector is at the lowest in at least 22 years and could stay there for some time. A gauge tracking sentiment in the sector dropped in the first quarter to the lowest since its inception in 1997, according to a statement Tuesday by FirstRand Group Ltd.’s First National Bank and the Stellenbosch-based Bureau for Economic Research. That means 90 percent of participants in the…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – MTN Group Ltd. shares fell almost 7 percent after Nigeria’s government said Africa’s biggest mobile operator evaded taxes and urged a Lagos court not to block a $2 billion penalty. The High Court of Lagos should throw out the Johannesburg-based company’s attempt to stop it from paying backdated taxes, T. A. Gazali, a government lawyer, said in court Tuesday. Wole Olanipekun, a lawyer for MTN, said Nigeria’s attorney-general, who imposed…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Not since the days of fugitive oil merchant Marc Rich has the commodities trading industry faced so much global scrutiny. The biggest independent oil and metals trading houses, including Vitol Group, Trafigura Group Ltd., Glencore Plc., Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. and Gunvor Group Ltd., are facing bribery and corruption investigations in jurisdictions ranging from Brazil to Switzerland and, most importantly, the U.S. The multitude of investigations echoes the early 1980s, when then-U.S….

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The pound climbed as Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg signaled he could back the U.K. Prime Minister’s deal to leave the European Union, keeping alive the possibility that her plan may eventually pass through Parliament. Sterling reversed earlier declines to lead gains across the Group-of-10 currencies as Rees-Mogg said Theresa May’s deal was “better than not leaving at all.” Rees-Mogg leads an influential grouping of lawmakers, the European Research Group, who have opposed her…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Stocks of U.S. construction-industry suppliers declined in London after Ferguson Plc, a wholesaler of heating and plumbing products viewed as a bellwether for the sector, forecast annual profit at the low end of analysts’ estimates. “After a strong revenue performance in the first half, our growth rate has moderated recently in line with conditions in our markets,” the FTSE 100 constituent said in a statement Tuesday. The update reflected a “sharp slowdown”…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. reduced the intensity of rotating power cuts on Friday — the country’s ninth straight day of scheduled blackouts — after imports from Mozambique were partially restored. South Africa’s supply from the Cahora Bassa hydroelectric system was cut about a week ago when Cyclone Idai damaged pylons in neighboring Mozambique. The loss of imports compounded an existing shortfall in South Africa after several of…