According to Reuters, The following company announcements, scheduled economic indicators, debt and currency market moves and political events may affect African markets on Thursday.
EVENTS:
Bank of Zambia auctions Treasury bills of all maturities.
GLOBAL MARKETS
Asian shares gave back earlier gains on Thursday after data showed China’s factory activity shrank for a fifth successive month, underscoring concerns about a growth slowdown in the world’s second largest economy.
WORLD OIL PRICES
Brent crude dropped below $124 a barrel on Thursday, after weak Chinese manufacturing data sparked concerns that energy demand growth could slow at the world’s second-largest oil consumer.
WORLD BANK
Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo are set to make the first concerted challenge to the U.S. grip on the top job at the World Bank, according to sources.
SOUTH AFRICA MARKETS
For years South Africa’s banks never realised they could make money out of millions of low-paid workers, but now they can’t stop – just ask Salma.
NIGERIA MARKETS
The Nigerian naira strengthened against the U.S dollar on the interbank market and held steady on the official window on Wednesday, as large dollar inflows from offshore investors boosted greenback liquidity and supported the local currency.
Yields on Nigeria’s most liquid 3-year government bond fell on Wednesday, after a surprise decline in inflation and a move by the central bank to hold rates steady for a third time in a row.
NIGERIA SECURITY
Nigerian security forces killed nine Islamist Boko Haram militants and captured two in a shootout in northern Kano state and seized a cache of stolen police weapons, an army general said on Wednesday.
KENYA MARKETS
The Kenya shilling closed a tad firmer against the dollar on Wednesday, helped by inflows from debt and tea auctions, while East Africa Breweries Ltd. led stocks higher.
The average weighted yields Kenya’s on 91-day and 182-day Treasury bill both fell at auction on Wednesday, the central bank said.
Kenya Commercial Bank , the biggest foreign bank in South Sudan, plans to open as many as four new branches in the young nation this year to take advantage of retail, corporate and lending opportunities, an executive said on Wednesday.
An expected easing in Kenyan interest rates from the second half of 2012 could give relief to house buyers struggling with last year’s sharp jump in rates, the CEO of specialist mortgage lender Housing Finance said.
UGANDA MARKETS
Yields on Ugandan Treasury bills rose on all tenors at an auction on Wednesday, echoing analyst forecasts which said the rates had probably bottomed out even as Bank of Uganda (BoU) pursues a cycle of monetary policy easing.
The Uganda shilling slipped against the dollar on Wednesday on demand for the U.S. currency from the manufacturing and energy sectors, but traders forecast a recovery of the local currency on possible offshore interest in the Treasury auction.
UGANDA POLITICS
Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye was arrested in connection with the death of a police officer during a riot in Kampala on Wednesday, a police spokesman said.
MALI COUP
Renegade Malian soldiers went on state television on Thursday to declare they had seized power and would look to hand over to a new, democratically elected government.
ZIMBABWE DEBT
Zimbabwe plans to float a $100 million bond to rebuild its dilapidated infrastructure as the country struggles to attract foreign investment, the finance minister said on Wednesday.
MAURITIUS ECONOMY
Tourism revenues in Mauritius rose 12.1 percent in the year ended Jan. 31, on higher visitors arrivals, data showed on Wednesday.
Mauritius’ trade deficit widened 42 percent to 6.6 billion rupees ($226.8 million) in January from a year earlier, driven by a jump in imports costs of machinery and transport equipment, official data showed on Wednesday.
RWANDA ECONOMY
Rwanda’s 2011 gross domestic product grew 8.6 percent compared to 7.2 percent a year earlier, the statistics office said on Wednesday. Rwanda’s central bank had forecast a growth of 8.8 percent for 2011.
BRITAIN HOSTAGE
Somali pirates freed British hostage Judith Tebbutt on Wednesday, saying a ransom had been paid, more than six months after gunmen killed her husband and snatched her from a luxury beach resort in neighbouring Kenya.
