Author: Marketforces Africa

Fitch Affirms Zambia at ‘Restricted Default’ Fitch Ratings has affirmed Zambia’s Long-Term Foreign Currency (LTFC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘Restricted Default’ (RD). The affirmation reflects that Zambia remains in default on its non-bond foreign-currency commercial debt, pending a restructuring, the rating note said. Since the June 2024 Eurobond exchange, Zambia has reached agreements in principle (AIP) with four creditors, Fitch said. “Two of these had claims that were Sinosure-insured that we do not consider commercial.”. With the agreement in principle with the two other creditors, 27% of Zambia’s external commercial debt remains non-performing in 2021 and has not been…

Energy Transition: Nigeria to Focus on Africa for Oil – Minister Nigeria is to harness its oil reserves and pursue its plans to increase oil output to fill the “yawning gap” in Africa. Dr Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), said this on Tuesday at the 13th Practical Nigerian Content Forum organized by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) in Yenagoa. Lokponiri explained that no country in the world will stop the production of fossil fuels when there are still markets for it. Speaking on the theme “Deepening the Next Frontier for Nigerian Content Implementation,” the…

Nigeria’s Eurobonds Yield Dips as Demand for New Notes Surges In Nigeria’s sovereign Eurobonds market, buy pressure across the short, mid, and long segments of the yield curve resulted in a 0.15% decrease in the average yield, bringing it to 9.55%, traders said. The Eurobond segment witnessed active trading, characterized by bullish bias as market participants submitted bids across the curve. The new Eurobonds notes launched this week were top on the list of assets receiving strong demand from offshore investors that lost their bids at the auction. The Nigerian government raised $2.2 billion from the international debt capital market.…

Investors reduce their Treasury bills portfolios in the secondary market in preparation for the midweek auction.

Equities Investors Lose N19bn as ARADEL, INTBREW Decline Sell pressures in oil and consumer goods stocks dragged the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) downward by about N19 billion. The decline was mainly driven by selloffs in ARADEL (-8.72%), INTBREW (-2.44%), and UACN (-2.44%). The loss outweighed the gains in WAPCO (+9.95%) and banking ticker FBNH (+3.92%) The equities market had opened the week positively, but in the course of trading session, investors’ mood was altered. Due to negative sentiment, the key performance index retreated by 0.03%, according to data from the domestic bourse. The All-Share Index reduced by 31.30 basis points to…

UK Businesses sue Microsoft for $1.27 Billion Microsoft is facing 1 billion Euros, an equivalent of $1.27 billion, in legal action from UK businesses over claims it overcharged firms for access to products. The claim filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal alleges customers using rival cloud computing platforms to Microsoft’s own Azure were charged higher licensing fees to access its Windows Server. It alleges that UK businesses and organisations are collectively owed more than £1 billion euros in compensation for being overcharged, and that Microsoft has used anti-competitive practices to try to force customers to move to its cloud computing…

Egypt’s Private Sector Downturn Softens in November –PMI Private sector pressure softened in Egypt as a decline in activity eased sales with the slowest rise in charges since July, according to S&P purchasing manager index (PMI). In November, Egypt PMI edged closer to 50% growth threshold, according to the latest report.  S&P said the latest business survey data signaled a further decline in operating conditions across the Egyptian non-oil sector in November. Output levels fell in response to weaker order inflows, but the downturn softened to its least marked in three months. Input prices rose at the slowest pace since…

Market cap of all cryptos increased to about $3.5 trillion during early house on Tuesday due to buying interest in lightweights.

Oil Prices Climb Ahead of U.S. Fed Rates Cut Oil prices climbed in the global commodities market on Tuesday amidst expectation that U.S. Federal Reserves would lower rates. The demand expectation in China is boosting hope of a price surge while tensions continue to escalate in the Middle East. In breach of the ceasefire agreement with Lebanon, Israel has continued assault in the Middle East, thus reinforcing supply concerns in the region. On Tuesday, Brent rose to $72.22 per barrel while the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate climbed to $68.38 per barrel. Crude oil prices have been fluctuating ahead of…

The average yield on Nigerian Treasury bills declined by five or 5 basis points (bps) in the secondary market to 25.2%, traders said in separate notes.