The Markets

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt is returning to the dollar debt market to benefit from renewed investor confidence in the economy after sweeping reforms and support from the International Monetary Fund. The government is offering benchmark-sized tranches maturing in five, 10 and 30 years, according to a person familiar with the matter. The initial pricing target is more than one percentage point over last year’s three-part deal that raised $4 billion across similar maturities. Egypt plans to sell as…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – With the U.S.-China trade dispute dominating headlines this year, idiosyncratic risks in emerging markets have played second fiddle to concerns over global growth. South Africa, Nigeria, Thailand and Russia each gave money managers a reminder of how quickly local issues can flare up over the past week. It happened just as some investors were starting to ask if the emerging-market trade was getting overcooked. A Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s rand is most at risk of a slide among the high-yielding currencies this year even as a more dovish Federal Reserve and weaker dollar support developing-nation assets, according to Standard Chartered Plc. Domestic mis-steps and weak fundamentals in emerging-markets could quickly outweigh a supportive global environment, especially during spurts of strength in U.S. markets, Standard Chartered analysts Geoff Kendrick, Razia Khan and Samir Gadio wrote in a note to clients. “While global…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – For commodity investors, this week will be dominated by metals and menus. The schedule is crowded with earnings from the mining industry’s titans, including Ivan Glasenberg’s Glencore Plc, BHP Group, Anglo American Plc and Newmont Mining Corp. The companies will offer insight into the global outlook, the industry’s response to Vale SA’s dam burst tragedy, and in the case of Newmont, how it might fare after it swallows Goldcorp Inc. On the…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigerian stocks fell the most in more than five months and bond yields rose after Africa’s biggest oil producer delayed last weekend’s presidential and parliamentary election at the last minute. The one-week postponement, just a few hours before voting was scheduled to start on Saturday morning, rattled investors and led to accusations from both President Muhammadu Buhari’s party and the opposition, led by Atiku Abubakar, of skulduggery against one another. Nigeria’s…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – It will take more than a surprise rate cut to threaten this month’s best carry trade. Egypt’s real interest rates remain elevated relative to emerging-market peers even after the central bank used its opening meeting of 2019 to loosen policy for the first time in almost a year. Following last week’s 100 basis-point reduction in lending and deposit rates, investment bank CI Capital predicts Egypt will extend the easing with a further two…