Markets and investing

Rand up over 1%, Nigeria’s free-float policy, AfDB investing in African bond markets

Stocks, forex and commodities

Update: Forex (at 1100 GMT)

Oil prices surged to an 18-month high on Monday after the world’s top crude producers agreed to the first joint output cut since 2001.

South Africa’s rand climbed more than 1% against the dollar on Monday. Corporate executives expect the rand to depreciate further in 2017. On the other hand, the South African stock market lost ground.

Meanwhile, Nigeria may be poised to abandon the free-float policy on the Naira, if a new legislation is passed giving the government authority to defend the currency. Foreign investors may regain confidence in Nigerian stocks after Moody’s projected the country’s real GDP growth to rise to 2.5% in 2017 and accelerate further in 2018 to 4%.

In the bond markets, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a seed equity capital investment of Sh2.5 billion ($25million) into the African Domestic Bond Fund (ADBF) that aims to invest in African local currency denominated bonds.

Stock markets