Author: Marketforces Africa

Senate Passes 2024 Investment, Security Re-enactment Bill The Senate passed the Investment and Security repeal and re-enactment Bill, 2024. The passage of the bill followed the adoption of report of Committee on Capital Market at plenary. The report was presented by chairman of the committee, Sen. Osita Izunaso (APC-Imo). Izunaso, while presenting the report, said that stakeholders at the public hearing on the bill were unanimous in their support for the passage of the bill. He said that the capital market, as revolutionary as it was at its inception and after many years of operation, required systemic but substantial updates…

Namibia Central Bank Cuts Interest Rate to 7% The Bank of Namibia’s (BON) monetary policy committee (MPC), in a unanimous decision, voted to cut key policy or interest rate by 25 basis points to 7.00%, an official statement said. At the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) sixth and final meeting of 2024, held on 2 and 3 December, the Bank of Namibia Governor, Johannes !Gawaxab revealed the repo rate has been slashed by 25 basis points, bringing it down to 7%. The rate-cut decision is to stimulate economic growth while maintaining the peg between the Namibian dollar and the South African…

Stock Hits All-Time High as Lafarge Africa Reaffirms Commitment to Nigeria Stock market price hits all-time high during intraday trading session as Lafarge Africa Plc has reaffirmed commitment to the Nigerian market following notice of divestment by Holcim, a Swiss parent company. Ticker: WAPCO hit a 52-week high of N76.95 per share this after investors continue to increase their stakes ahead of the mandatory takeover offer from the new majority shareholder. Trading data showed seven days ago, WAPCO was priced at N53. On December 1, 2024, the Holcim Group announced that it had signed an agreement to sell its 83.81%…

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…