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If you are tracking the NSE Do it via RICHLIVE and use Mozilla Firefox as your Browser. 0930-1500 KENYA TIME Normal Board - The Whole shebang Prompt Board Next day settlement Expert Board All you need re an Individual stock.
The Latest Daily PodCast can be found here on the Front Page of the site http://www.rich.co.ke |
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With Thanks to @bmarshallcctv @cctvnewsafrica for the Interview about @Johnkerry and the Chinese Premier #Africa Africa |
Macro Thoughts
Home Thoughts
I am headed to Poland this week and then to Milan early next week so please make allowances this week.
My Favourite Polish Author is of course the irrepressible Ryszard Kapuściński https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6255.Ryszard_Kapu_ci_ski
“A journey, after all, neither begins in the instant we set out, nor ends when we have reached our door step once again. It starts much earlier and is really never over, because the film of memory continues running on inside of us long after we have come to a physical standstill. Indeed, there exists something like a contagion of travel, and the disease is essentially incurable.” ― Ryszard Kapuściński, Travels with Herodotus
“If the crowd disperses, goes home, does not reassemble, we say the revolution is over.” ― Ryszard Kapuściński
“The true life is not reducible to words spoken or written, not by anyone, ever. The true life takes place when we're alone, thinking feeling, lost in memory, dreamingly self-aware, the submicroscopic moments.” ― Don DeLillo, Point Omega
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Currency Markets at a Glance WSJ World Currencies |
Euro 1.3875 Dollar Index 79.46 Japan Yen 101.92 The yen climbed 0.3 percent to 101.90 per dollar as of 11:25 a.m. in Singapore after touching 101.87, the strongest since April 17. Swiss Franc 0.8774 Pound 1.6876 The pound rose 0.4 percent this week to $1.6865 at 5:07 p.m. London time yesterday after rising to $1.6920 on May 1, the highest level since August 2009 Aussie 0.9262 India Rupee 60.06 South Korea Won 1029.74 In South Korea, the won rallied to 1029.96 on April 30, the strongest level since August 2008, after the nation’s current-account surplus reached $7.35 billion in March Brazil Real 2.2195 Egypt Pound 7.0053 South Africa Rand 10.4657
Sterling has climbed 5.5 percent in the past six months, the best performer among 10 developed-nation currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes, as the strengthening recovery fuels speculation the Bank of England will raise borrowing costs sooner than other central banks. The euro gained 2.1 percent and the dollar weakened 1 percent.
Euro versus the Dollar 3 Month Chart 1.3875 http://quotes.ino.com/charting/index.html?s=FOREX_EURUSD&v=d3&t=c&a=50&w=1
Dollar Index 3 Month Chart INO 79.46 http://quotes.ino.com/charting/index.html?s=NYBOT_DX&v=d3&t=c&a=50&w=1
Data on Friday showed U.S. employers hired workers at the fastest clip in more than two years in April, pointing to a rebound in economic growth after a severe winter.
The dollar index .DXY initially rallied to a high of 79.852, only to then slide to a session low of 79.469. It was last flat at 79.504.
Traders said a combination of factors took the wind out of the dollar, including a worryingly-large increase in the number of people dropping out of the labor force, weak wage growth and escalating violence in Ukraine.
Sterling 3 month chart INO 1.6876 [The pound rose 0.4 percent this week to $1.6865 at 5:07 p.m. London time yesterday after rising to $1.6920 on May 1, the highest level since August 2009] http://quotes.ino.com/charting/index.html?s=FOREX_GBPUSD&v=d3&t=c&a=50&w=1
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China premier says Sino-Africa disputes just 'growing pains' Africa |
Disputes arising over China's investment projects in Africa are just "growing pains" in a burgeoning relationship that saw their trade top $200 billion last year, Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday ahead of a tour of the continent.
Li, speaking before starting a May 4-11 trip to Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola and Kenya, said Chinese firms in Africa needed to abide by local laws and regulations as well as also take responsibility to protect the interests of local communities.
He said the Chinese government was willing to sit down with African countries to resolve any issues that arose between the two sides, but said theses were "isolated" cases in a relationship based on equality and mutual benefit.
"I wish to assure our African friends in all seriousness that China will never pursue a colonialist path like some countries did, or allow colonialism, which belongs to the past, to reappear in Africa," the official news agency Xinhua quoted Li as saying.
In 2009, China overtook the United States as Africa's biggest trading partner, and Xinhua said more than 2,500 Chinese firms operate on the continent.
Bilateral trade between China and African countries reached $210 billion in 2013, but Beijing has been accused of holding back the continent's economic development by focusing on the pursuit of raw materials rather than the creation of local jobs and markets.
Angola, on Li's itinerary this week, has become one of China's biggest oil suppliers, with crude deliveries rising 9.9 percent to 10.66 million tons in the first quarter of 2014, second only to Saudi Arabia.
Kerry Calls for U.S. Investment in Africa, Warns on Corruption http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-03/kerry-calls-for-u-s-investment-in-africa-warns-on-corruption.html
Secretary of State John Kerry today urged greater U.S. investment in Africa to help develop a U.S.- Africa relationship focused more on shared opportunity and economic growth than on crisis management.
“For too long, ties between the United States and Africa were largely rooted in meeting the challenges and crises of the moment,” Kerry told an audience of diplomats and dignitaries in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“We want more American companies to be here, to invest here -- both to unleash the power of the private sector in Africa and to create jobs in America,” Kerry said, even while warning of the damage that conflict, corruption, and curbs on freedoms can do to Africa’s potential.
The top U.S. diplomat is on a five-day visit to Africa, with stops in Ethiopia, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Angola.
He noted that over the next three years, 37 of the 54 African nations will hold national elections, including 15 presidential elections.
“These elections will be vitally important, but elections cannot be the only opportunity for citizens to shape the future,” Kerry said. “Nations in Africa, like nations all over the world, are strongest when citizens have a say, when they have a stake in their nation’s success.”
John Kerry’s hastily announced trip to Africa last week is something of an occasion: It’s the first time he has set foot in sub-Saharan Africa as secretary of state aside from a brief visit just to Addis Ababa in May 2013.
Genocide risk in South Sudan amid personal power struggle: U.N. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/02/us-southsudan-unrest-un-genocide-idUSBREA410XW20140502
Adama Dieng, U.N. special adviser on prevention of genocide, and U.N. Human Rights chief Navi Pillay briefed the 15-member council on Friday. Dieng said the ethnic slaughter of hundreds of civilians in Bentui and an attack on a U.N. peacekeeping base in Bor last month had changed the course of the conflict.
"If such attacks are not immediately halted it could plunge the country into serious violence that could spiral out of control," said Dieng, who has visited South Sudan with Pillay. "In the current situation, we see elements that we could categorize as risk factors of genocide and other atrocity crimes."
Military Spending In some regions, like Africa, it really shot up. The continent as a whole witnessed an 8.3% jump in 2013, totaling nearly $45 billion. http://www.allgov.com/news/us-and-the-world/military-spending-down-in-us-up-in-middle-east-asia-and-africa-140502?news=853051
Algeria led the way and became the first country in Africa to eclipse the $10 billion mark in military spending. The government has devoted a far larger share of its revenue to bolstering the army since 2004, with military expenditures rising 176% since then.
Other big spenders in Africa included Angola (a 36% increase), which now devotes more to the military than any other nation in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa.
South Africa All Share Bloomberg +7.63% 2014 Record All Time Highs http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/JALSH:IND
South African political parties hold final campaign rallies this weekend ahead of elections on Wednesday http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/south-africa-to-vote-next-week/2014/05/02/09fa9a44-d1f7-11e3-a714-be7e7f142085_story.html
The ruling party won two-thirds of the vote in 2009 elections.
Dollar versus Rand 3 Month Chart INO 10.4658 [10.00 before 11.00, in my view] http://quotes.ino.com/charting/index.html?s=FOREX_USDZAR&t=c&a=50&w=1&v=d3
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Jonathan Says Nigeria Facing Trying Times With Terrorism Africa |
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said Africa’s biggest economy “is going through trying times” amid terror attacks by Islamist militants, who have bombed the capital twice in a month while holding more than 200 schoolgirls hostage.
“The Nigerian government is ready and willing to do anything that will bring this terrorism to an end,” Jonathan said in an interview on state television, NTA. “We’re talking to all countries that might help.”
Ghana Stock Exchange Composite Index Bloomberg +5.45% 2014 http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/GGSECI:IND
Seven Killed in Ethiopia Amid Protests Over Capital’s Expansion http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-02/seven-killed-in-ethiopia-amid-protests-over-capital-s-expansion.html
Seven people were killed during protests in a western Ethiopian town over the expansion of the capital, Addis Ababa, General-Secretary of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress Bekele Nega said.
The police opened fire on April 29 in Ambo as demonstrators invaded the state-owned Construction and Business Bank after a security guard shot dead a male protester, Nega said today by phone. Communications Minister Redwan Hussein and State Minister of Communications Shimeles Kemal didn’t answer their phones today when called for comment.
Protests by Oromo people, Ethiopia’s most populous ethnic group, have been taking place for the past week, mostly around universities in several towns across the Oromia region, which surrounds Addis Ababa, Nega said.
One person died and about 70 others were injured in a blast at Haromaya University in the east, pro-government Fana Broadcasting Corp. said on its website yesterday, citing a Communications Ministry statement.
IN CHOOSING SECURITY OVER DEMOCRACY IN ETHIOPIA, U.S. WILL GET NEITHER http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/5/john-kerry-ethiopiaaddisababaoromostudentprotestspressfreedom.html
To his credit, Kerry raised concerns about the tightening of press freedom in Ethiopia. “I made clear to Ethiopian officials that they need to create greater opportunities for citizens to be able to engage with their fellow citizens and with their government by opening up more space for civil society,” Kerry told reporters in Addis Ababa.
However, his discussions with Ethiopia’s leaders were overshadowed by South Sudan’s implosion — with continuing fragility in next-door Somalia, and souring Egypt-Ethiopia relations stirred by Ethiopia’s construction of the Great Renaissance Dam over the Nile, in the background.
“To support economic growth for the long term, the free marketplace of ideas matters just as much as free markets,” Kerry noted in his remarks. But he failed to underscore how rising instability could erode Ethiopia’s standing as a linchpin to the otherwise volatile Horn of Africa region’s stability and damage its newly minted image as an emerging economic powerhouse.
Reports of the number of dead vary, but in clashes with security forces over the last few days, locals say at least 20 protesters have been killed and many others wounded in Ambo and Robe towns. The government acknowledged 11 deaths, adding at least 70 students were wounded in a bomb blast at Haramaya University in Eastern Oromia. Swedish and U.K. embassies in Addis Ababa updated travel warnings for their nationals urging those in Ethiopia to avoid visiting the area.
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday urged Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila to respect a constitutional law which forbids him from seeking a new term in 2016 elections. http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/655212-kerry-urges-dr-congo-s-kabila-to-respect-constitution-in-2016-poll.html
"I believe that it is clear to him (Kabila) that the United States of America feels very strongly, as do other people, that the constitutional process need to respected," Kerry said on a visit to the country.
He announced that the United States would provide funding of $30 million (almost 22 million euros) "to support transparent and credible elections as well as recovery... programmes in eastern Congo".
Secretary Kerry Meets With DRC President Kabila https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5508/9925962945_b3fb6886e5_z.jpg
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“We have engaged McKinsey to help us with the route-to-market project in order to implement the best model for the Kenyan market,” said Charles Ireland, the EABL managing director. @BD_Africa Kenyan Economy |
EABL has rallied 12.5% over the last 4 weeks and this is a 2014 closing High share price data here http://www.rich.co.ke/rcdata/company.php?i=MzQ%3D
Kenya Airways faces Sh14bn tax bill for eight new aircraft @BD_Africa http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Kenya-Airways-faces-Sh14bn-tax-bill-for-eight-new-aircraft/-/539546/2303722/-/14xlm83/-/index.html
Parliament’s recent decision to impose value added tax (VAT) on large aircraft has left national carrier Kenya Airways (KQ) with one of the largest tax bills ever for its planned purchase of Dreamliner jets.
Tax experts say the airline could pay up to Sh14 billion in VAT for the six Boeing 787 Dreamliners and a Boeing 777-300 ER expected to arrive before the end of the year besides the one Dreamliner that was delivered last month.
Each Dreamliner is priced at about Sh11 billion and paying 16 per cent VAT on the eight aircraft poses a new challenge to the airline’s operations at a time it is struggling with high fuel costs, a dip in passenger numbers on some routes due to Kenya’s security concerns and stiff competition in the market.
The new law particularly hurts Kenya Airways’ ability to effectively compete with key rivals such as Ethiopian Airlines and Middle East carriers, who are not carrying the extra cost that is likely to be passed on to passengers in the form of pricier airline tickets.
“There will be a huge negative impact since all KQ aircraft if purchased are now taxable. Spares and engines are also taxable under this new legal regime,” KQ said a statement, adding that the amendment “isn’t good news for the business”.
The first tweet in Kenya was probably the one sent by the co-founder of Twitter, Evan Williams, from the lounge of the Mount Kenya Safari Club on August 11, 2007 http://whiteafrican.com/2014/05/01/what-twitter-can-tell-us-about-african-cities/
There are now 250,000+ active Twitter accounts in Nairobi – 6 Twitter accounts per 100 Nairobians, against estimated mobile phone density of 80 mobiles per 100 Nairobians.
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