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Commodities drag JSE lower
May 4, 2011-- The JSE stayed lower at noon on Wednesday as weaker commodity prices weighed on the local bourse. Mining stocks in particular came under pressure, a market watcher said.
By 12:10 local time, the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was down 0.80%, with resources falling 0.82%, platinum miners sliding 1.70% and gold miners dropping 1.71%. Banks erased 1.69%, financials declined 0.88% and industrials fell 0.75%.
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Source: FIN24
Rand Merchant Bank’s Coal Exchange-Traded Notes Will List on JSE Tomorrow
May 4, 2011--Rand Merchant Bank said its coal exchange-traded notes will list on Johannesburg’s bourse tomorrow to expand trade in the commodity.
This gives people the opportunity to invest in 1 metric ton of coal, “making the product more accessible and easier to invest in than directly into a futures contract, which typically trades at 5,000 tons of coal,” Vicki Goodwin, a Johannesburg- based spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement today.
The contracts will be settled against the price of coal exported from Richards Bay, South Africa, site of the continent’s biggest facility for shipping the fuel.
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Source: Bloomberg
Funds flows into African private equity – $1.5bn in 2010
May 4, 2011--Funds inflows into private equity in sub-Saharan Africa including South Africa (SSA) were $156 million in the first quarter of 2011, according to research by the Emerging Markets Private Equity association. This is lower than the equivalent rate over the full year 2010 and a small proportion of the total $10.2 billion raised in the first quarter for funds dedicated to emerging markets (43% of the amount raised in all of 2010). Emerging Asia raised $9.5bn (93% of the Q1 total) and China-focused funds accounted for $5.4 bn of the total.
For the year 2010, private equity fundraising for Sub-Saharan Africa totalled $1.49 bn and the region saw one of the fastest growth rates in emerging markets, reports EMPEA. Aggregate funds raised was up 56% on 2009, while most emerging markets regions raised less funds, according to a report on website, www.privateequityafrica.com.
Brazil saw the biggest increase among emerging markets, with funds up by 169%, followed by Latin American and Caribbean region at 149%. China saw its funds grow by 13% year-on-year. Russia was down 84%, Middle East and Africa down 58%, India was down 11%, Emerging Asia down 18% and the collective Central and Eastern European region 25%).
view report-2011 EMPEA/Coller Capital EM PE Survey of Investors
Source: African Capital Markets
Panel Finalises Structure of Draft Financial Reporting Bill
May 4, 2011--The interpreting and structuring of provisions for the proposed bill, to be named the Financial Report Proclamation of Ethiopia, was completed by a panel of experts at a gathering in Bishoftu (Debre Zeit) last week, Fortune has learnt.
The four experts are Botu Sintayehu and Brehanu Tadesse, legal experts from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED); Munir Ahmed, an instructor at the Civil Service College (CSC); and Amaha Bogale, public prosecutor for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
If ratified by Parliament, the bill will bring fundamental changes to Ethiopia’s financial reporting system by requiring the system to comply with international financial reporting standards (IFRS).
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Source: Addis Fortune
Experts Recommend Measures to Attract Investments in Africa
May 4, 2011--Financial experts, regulators and investors have said that for African capital markets to attract more investments, there must be strong infrastructure, exchanges, increased investor education, good corporate governance and adequate capacity to enforce rules and regulations in the markets.
Following the global financial crisis that had heavy impact on most developed capital markets, African capital markets are seen as the next destination for most international investors.
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Source: SEC.gov
Oil Spill(over)s: Linkages in Petroleum Product Pricing Policies in West African Countries-IMF Working Paper
May 3, 2011--Summary
This paper addresses a number of issues regarding petroleum product pricing in Western Africaemphasizing international spillovers. We use panel unit root rests and long-run modeling based on vector error correction models to assess links and convergence in petroleum product prices across countries. Our results indicate that in general over the long-run there is convergence in prices across the countries.
The estimation results for gasoline and diesel prices suggest the presence of long-run links between retail prices among the different country groupings with long-run multipliers ranging from 11 to -6.66. The speed of Adjustment to equilibrium varies significantly according to the countrygroupings considered. In contrast, the econometric results for kerosene prices not only indicate a weaker link between prices across countries, but also a much slower adjustment to equilibrium. Inlight of these important spillovers, the need to better coordinate pricing s and tax policies towards petroleum products at the regional level becomes apparent.
Stock market deal with FTSE boosts data trade
May 3, 2011--The Nairobi Stock Exchange has signed an agreement with global market performance tracking company—FTSE—that will see the bourse gain new revenues by selling data to international investors, and spur more foreign investor interest.
Under the agreement that is still in the development stage, FTSE International and the NSE will create new FTSE/NSE share and bond indexes that will be marketed to millions of international investors who monitor FTSE indices around the world.
The partnership is expected to open new income streams for the bourse through selling of premium market data to investors, while local buyers are likely to benefit from higher liquidity that comes with more exposure to international buyers.
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Source: Business Daily
Bonds gain after auction
May 3, 2011--South African bonds gained in thin late afternoon trade on Tuesday, following the weekly auction.
"It was the auction that mattered, as well as a slightly better rand in comparison to where the local currency was before the auction," a local bond trader said.
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Source: FIN24
Global equities speed up JSE sell-off
May 3, 2011--The JSE slumped on Tuesday in line with its international counterparts, as investors digested poor global economic data and reacted negatively to corporate news involving Deutsche Bank. Mining stocks led the decline, with the platinum and gold indexes easing more than 3%.
Kevin Algeo, portfolio manager at Imara SP Reid, said the sell-off was fuelled by disappointing Chinese production data, which indicated that interest rate cuts and new bank reserve requirements were starting to affect growth.
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Source: FIN24
Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa
May 3, 2011--Sub-Saharan Africa's economic recovery is well under way, although among country groups there is variation in the speed of the recovery. In most of the region's low-income countries and among the seven oil exporters growth is almost back to precrisis levels.
However, in the region's middle-income countries, including South Africa, the recovery has been more gradual. This Regional Economic Outlook describes the impact of recent economic developments---sharp increases in food and fuel prices will need fiscal interventions targeting the poor, while higher oil prices will be a boon to some countries and adversely affect others. Policy adjustments are needed to move away from the supportive stance of the last few years but should be balanced against the need to alleviate the impact of rising food prices on poor households.
view report-Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa
Recovery and New Risks
Source: IMF
