Angola Is Said to Plan Currency Sale Tuesday as It Ends Peg

Angola Is Said to Plan Currency Sale Tuesday as It Ends Peg

LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Angola’s central bank will hold an auction on Tuesday to sell foreign currency to commercial banks, its first since saying it will abandon a dollar peg, according to three people familiar with knowledge of the matter. The kwanza will probably be allowed to depreciate at the auction as the central bank shifts to a trading band, the people said, asking not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to…

Read More

Rand Falls as Cheer Gives Way to Hard Reality of Ramaphosa’s Job

Rand Falls as Cheer Gives Way to Hard Reality of Ramaphosa’s Job

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The rand fell, after clocking up its longest weekly winning run since 2010, as analysts at Rabobank and JPMorgan Chase & Co. said the currency has rallied too far. The rand weakened as much as 1.3 percent against the dollar, set for the biggest loss since Dec. 7. The selloff on Monday sent the 14-day relative strength index of dollar-rand pairing, which lingered in oversold territory for most of the past three weeks,…

Read More

Cost of Hard Currency in Zimbabwe Tumbles as Optimism Takes Root

Cost of Hard Currency in Zimbabwe Tumbles as Optimism Takes Root

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – The street price of hard currency in Zimbabwe has dropped more than 30 percent since Robert Mugabe was ousted as president last week. One U.S. dollar cost the equivalent of $1.30 in Zimbabwean bond notes on the black market on Tuesday, down from $1.90 on November 20, according to street traders who quoted prices to Bloomberg.  Zimbabwe doesn’t have its own currency, with the government adopting a basket of…

Read More

South African Rand Surges as Traders Cheer Respite From Moody’s

South African Rand Surges as Traders Cheer Respite From Moody’s

  JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s rand is living up to its reputation as the world’s most volatile currency. Having been dealt what should have been a crippling blow by S&P Global Ratings on Friday, sparking a 2 percent slump, the currency advanced as much as 3.3 percent on Monday, on track for its best day since December 2015, after Moody’s Investors Service retained its investment-grade rating on the nation’s local-currency debt….

Read More

Traders Aren’t Yet Calling an End to Nigeria’s Naira Problem

Traders Aren’t Yet Calling an End to Nigeria’s Naira Problem

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigerian officials are increasingly confident the naira’s troubles are over for good. Some investors disagree. Portfolio inflows have risen in the past three months with crude prices increasing above $60 a barrel and money managers taking heart from a new foreign-exchange trading window, in which the naira has converged with the black-market rate. That prompted central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele and Patience Oniha, the head of the nation’s Debt Management Office, to tell…

Read More

South Africa’s Rand Slumps as Ramaphosa Speculation Raises Risks

South Africa’s Rand Slumps as Ramaphosa Speculation Raises Risks

JOHANNESBUR (Capital Markets in Africa)- South Africa’s rand led emerging-market currency declines against the dollar amid speculation that President Jacob Zuma is preparing to fire his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa days after removing another critic from his cabinet. The rand dropped as much as 1.3 percent and traded 1.1 percent weaker at 13.6309 per dollar by 9:37 a.m. in Johannesburg, bringing its slump this week to 2.7 percent, the most since the five days ending Aug….

Read More

Rand Bulls Snub Risks as ING Sees South African Currency Rising

Rand Bulls Snub Risks as ING Sees South African Currency Rising

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Analysts at Rand Merchant Bank and ING Groep NV predict the South African currency, the second-worst emerging-market performer in the past month, will rebound against the dollar by year-end as the pull of improving fundamentals and the hunt for yield support buyers amid lingering political and fiscal risks. The rand fell to a six-month low of 13.8618 per dollar this week as tepid economic growth, an African National Congress leadership…

Read More
1 2 3 4 6