The following company announcements, scheduled economic indicators, debt and currency market moves and political events may affect African markets on Thursday.
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GLOBAL MARKETS The U.S. dollar slipped on Thursday after the Federal Reserve did not signal a faster pace of rate hikes this year while worries about a coming announcement on tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump dented Asian shares. MKTS/GLOB
WORLD OIL PRICES Oil prices were firm on Thursday, buoyed by a surprise decline in U.S. crude inventories as well as ongoing supply cuts led by OPEC, although a relentless rise in U.S. oil output threatens to undermine efforts to tighten the market. O/R
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AFRICA TRADE African leaders agreed on Wednesday to form a $3 trillion continental free-trade zone encompassing 1.2 billion people, but its two biggest economies, Nigeria and South Africa, did not sign up, diminishing its impact. AFRICA UN/ABUSES Five South African peacekeepers are facing paternity tests for the children of four women and a girl who say they were sexually exploited by them in eastern Congo between 2014 and 2016, the United Nations said. SECURITY Islamist militants freed scores of kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls on Wednesday, driving them back into the town where they had been captured a month ago. CENTRAL BANK Nigeria's upper house of parliament will consider on Thursday President Muhammadu Buhari's nominees for the central bank's interest rate-setting committee, the chairman of the Senate's committee on banking told Reuters. TREASURY Nigeria plans to raise 53.96 billion naira at a treasury auction on Wednesday after repaying the same amount of bills, with the aim of lowering its borrowing costs, traders said. BUDGET The Nigerian parliament aims to pass the country's 2018 budget on April 24, lower house Speaker Yakubu Dogara said, following several months of delay. MARKETS The Kenyan shilling KES= strengthened against the dollar on Wednesday helped by thin demand and positive market sentiment following a boost to central bank foreign currency reserves by proceeds from a Eurobond sale, traders said. CENTRAL BANK Kenya's cap on commercial interest rates probably cut last year's estimated economic growth rate by 0.4 percentage points because it throttles credit to small and medium businesses, the central bank said. COFFEE When Nestle NESN.S executive Stephan Canz attended the German school in Nairobi in the early 1980s, it was surrounded by lush coffee farms. MICHELIN/CFAO French tyre manufacturer Michelin MICP.PA said on Wednesday it had agreed to a joint venture with automotive and pharmaceutical distribution specialist CFAO to sell premium tyres in Kenya and Uganda. AIRWAYS/RESULTS Kenya Airways KQNA.NR said on Wednesday its nine-month after tax loss stood at 6.1 billion shillings ($60.34 million), while its pretax loss was 5.97 billion shillings, adding its performance was hurt by a prolonged election period and rising fuel prices. MARKETS The Uganda shilling UGX= was edged down on Wednesday mainly due to demand for hard currency from commercial banks and some merchandise importers. TREASURIES Yields on Uganda's 10-year Treasury bond climbed at auction on Wednesday where a total of 200 billion shillings ($54.67 million) worth of debt of different maturities were on offer. COAST COCOA Ivory Coast's mid-crop cocoa output is expected to drop 23 percent this season due to insufficient rain and poorly kept fields, a senior source at the Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) said on Wednesday. FIRST QUANTUM Canada's First Quantum Minerals FM.TO on Wednesday was hopeful of resolving a dispute with Zambia over a whopping 76.5 billion Zambian kwacha ($8.07 billion) bill for unpaid duties on imported mining equipment. SUDAN USA/OIL SANCTIONS The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on 15 South Sudanese oil operators that it said were important sources of cash for the government, an action aimed at increasing pressure on President Salva Kiir to end the country's conflict and humanitarian crisis. MIGRANTS/YEMEN Anxious and hungry, hundreds of African migrants lie cramped together on the ground of a open-air warehouse in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden. DEBT A group of Mozambique's international creditors said on Wednesday it hoped to soon start constructive debt restructuring talks with the heavily indebted African country, with follow-up high level meetings scheduled in four weeks time. PRISONERS Zimbabwe's new president Emmerson Mnangagwa has pardoned up to 3,000 prisoners, including most female inmates, in his first act of clemency, a government notice showed on Wednesday. STRIKE The Zimbabwean government said on Wednesday it would not pay salaries and allowances to striking junior doctors, taking a hard line in the first big labour dispute President Emmerson Mnangagwa has faced since he took power. SUGAR Mauritius' 2017 earnings from sugar are expected to drop 30 percent, hit by lower export prices, the CEO of Mauritius Sugar Syndicate, which represents growers, said on Wednesday. DP WORLD Dubai ports operator DP World DPW.DI will build and manage a new deepwater port on Democratic Republic of Congo's Atlantic coast, the country's transport minister said on Wednesday. MINING Democratic Republic of Congo said it would open talks on Friday with mining companies about implementing some of the most contentious provisions in a new mining code that hikes taxes and royalties in the face of objections from industry. VIOLENCE The guns have fallen silent in the Congolese town of Mwene Ditu, but each day starving children arrive at the small hospital there battling for their lives. SECURITY/RIGHTS Armed groups execute and torture civilians in Libya in almost complete impunity seven years after the revolution that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, the United Nations human rights office said on Wednesday. the latest precious metals report click on GOL/
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