The following company announcements, scheduled economic indicators, debt and currency market moves and political events may affect African markets on Thursday.
- - - - - GLOBAL MARKETS Asian markets marked time on Thursday with two major centres - Japan and China - shut for holidays while the dollar held on to overnight gains after the U.S. central bank poured cold water on rate cut expectations. WORLD OIL PRICES Oil prices fell on Thursday, pulled down by record U.S. crude production that led to a surge in stockpiles. EMERGING MARKETS For the top emerging markets news, double click on AFRICA STOCKS For the latest news on African stocks, click on SOUTH AFRICA MARKETS South Africa's rand weakened on Tuesday as an unexpected slowdown in Chinese factory activity dented demand for risk assets, with investors increasingly cautious before local trade and budget data. NIGERIA OIL Two Royal Dutch Shell oil workers who were kidnapped in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta region last week have been rescued, a police spokesman and Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) said on Tuesday. KENYA MARKETS The Kenyan shilling strengthened against the dollar on Tuesday with inflows from offshore investors buying government debt and diaspora remittances supplying end month dollar demand from the energy and manufacturing sector, traders said. KENYA MORTGAGES The World Bank approved a $250 million loan to Kenya to help with affordable housing in the East African nation, where many would-be home owners struggle to obtain long term housing finance, the bank said on Wednesday. SOUTH SUDAN UNITED NATIONS South Sudan rejects U.N. allegations its security services kidnapped two prominent government critics exiled in Kenya in 2017, flew them to Juba and days later executed the pair on a farm owned by President Salva Kiir, a government minister said on Wednesday. UGANDA MARKETS The Ugandan shilling strengthened on Tuesday, helped by hard currency inflows from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) looking to pay salaries and meet other operational expenses, traders said. IVORY COAST COTTON Ivory Coast, Africa's fourth-largest cotton producer, is expected to export record amounts of cotton in the 2019/20 season, according to an report by a U.S. Department of Agriculture attache published on Wednesday. ZAMBIA ECONOMY Zambia's 2018 fiscal deficit stood at 7.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), higher than an earlier government projection of around 7 percent, Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe said on Wednesday. GAMBIA BP BP has signed a deal to explore for oil and gas off Gambia's coast in a potential economic boon for the tiny West African country, although another producer says it owns the rights to the same licence. SUDAN POLITICS The African Union said on Tuesday that Sudan's military rulers should hand over power to a civilian-led transitional authority within 60 days. AFRICA CYCLONE Headmaster Ernesto Parivos, like thousands of people across his province in Mozambique, is watching for any signs that flood waters have eased as food supplies dwindle.
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