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Wednesday 18th of January 2017 |
Morning Africa |
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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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Why are flights taking LONGER now than they were in the 1970s? Africa |
“The truth of the story lies in the details.” ― Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies
“In the end, each life is no more than the sum of contingent facts, a chronicle of chance intersections, of flukes, of random events that divulge nothing but their own lack of purpose.” ― Paul Auster
“I walk around the world like a ghost, and sometimes I question whether I even exist. Whether I've ever existed at all.” ― Paul Auster, Travels in the Scriptorium
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25-AUG-2014 The signal announcing this new arrhythmic normal was the disappearance of #MH370 Law & Politics |
Picking up the signal through the noise of our world in 2014 is no easy thing. In fact, my view is the new normal is a very arrhythmic world. When I plugged ‘’arrhythmia’’ into my computer, it threw up this;
‘’For years he’d been studying the phenomenon of chaos, of which an arrhythmic heartbeat was a perfect example’’
His excellency Johan Borgstam told me the signal announcing this new arrhythmic normal was the disappearance of the MH370. Since then planes have been falling out of the sky like flies. And the uncertainty around MH370 and MH17 which is sharpened by the way the story is seemingly turned on and off took me back to Don Delillo
‘’”We are not witnessing the flow of information so much as pure spectacle, or information made sacred, ritually unreadable. The small monitors of the office, home and car become a kind of idolatry here, where crowds might gather in astonishment.’’
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Putin Says Doesn't Believe Trump Met Prostitutes in Russia Law & Politics |
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he doesn’t believe that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump met with prostitutes in Russia, calling the accusations part of a campaign to undermine the election result.
*Unsubstantiated allegations made against Trump are “obvious fabrications,” Putin told reporters in the Kremlin on Tuesday*. *“People who order fakes of the type now circulating against the U.S. president-elect, who concoct them and use them in a political battle, are worse than prostitutes because they don’t have any moral boundaries at all,” he said*.
Putin said that Trump wasn’t a politician when he visited Moscow in the past and Russian officials weren’t aware that he held any political ambitions. It’s “complete nonsense” to believe that Russian security services “chase after every American billionaire,” he said.
The Kremlin has denied that it holds any compromising material on Trump after U.S. intelligence officials informed the president-elect about unsubstantiated reports that Russia had compiled potentially damaging personal information on him.
Trump said it was “disgraceful” that intelligence agencies had allowed “fake” information out, comparing this to the actions of Nazi Germany.
The U.S. tycoon-turned-politician was last in Moscow in 2013 for the staging of the Miss Universe contest that he owned. He hoped unsuccessfully to meet Putin, tweeting in June that year about the possibility the Russian leader would attend the beauty pageant.
*Trump is “a grown man, and secondly he’s someone who has been involved with beauty contests for many years and has met the most beautiful women in the world,” Putin said. “I find it hard to believe that he rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world.”*
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05-DEC-2016 :: Putin's Parabolic Rebound Law & Politics |
He checks in with his flight-dynamics and conceptual- paradigm officers at Colorado Command: “We have a deviate, Tomahawk.” “We copy. There’s a voice.” “We have gross oscillation here.”
He is right, traditional media has been disrupted and the insurgents can broadcast live and over the top. From feeding the hot-house conspiracy frenzy on line (‘’a constant state of destabilised perception’’), timely and judicious doses of Wikileaks leaks which drained Hillary’s bona fides and her turn-out and motivated Trump’s, what we have witnessed is something remarkable and noteworthy.
Putin has proven himself an information master, and his adversaries are his information victims.
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05-OCT-2015 :: Putin is a GeoPolitical GrandMaster @TheStarKenya Law & Politics |
Within 24 hours of delivering that speech, Russia instructed that the US should vacate Syrian Air Space. This message was not delivered to Ashton Carter by his Russian counterpart Shoigu.
It was delivered to the US Embassy in Baghdad. And pretty soon after that message was delivered, Russia began its intervention on the side of President Bashar Assad of Syria.
You could hear the squealing start immediately from Ankara to Riyadh, from the GCC to Washington. All these capitals have assets on the ground in Syria, and what is clear is that Russia is not making a distinction between IS or the ‘’moderate opposition fighting Assad’’ [which really means ‘’our’’ terrorists].
Lavrov said: “If it looks like a terrorist, if it acts like a terrorist, if it walks like a terrorist, if it fights like a terrorist, it’s a terrorist, right?”
Putin fancies himself the fly-catcher and syria the fly-trap. The speed of execution confirms that Russia is once again a geopolitical actor that will have to be considered. It is a breath-taking rebound.
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The old adage goes 'if you've got nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear' Amnesty Law & Politics |
The old adage goes ‘if you’ve got nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear’, but a detailed analysis of the human rights cost of the fast-expanding security state in Europe suggests otherwise.
Surveillance states
Many EU countries have joined the ranks of “surveillance states”, adopting new laws allowing indiscriminate mass surveillance that grant intrusive powers to security and intelligence services.
Mass surveillance powers have been granted or otherwise expanded in the UK, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium the Netherlands, among others. Such powers permit the mass interception of - and possible access to - data of millions of people.
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Trump: Dollar Is "Too Strong" And "It's Killing Us" Barrons Africa |
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, US President-elect Donald Trump broke the tradition of presidents refraining from commenting on the U.S. dollar’s level and went directly into it.
The Journal reported:
Mr. Trump said the U.S. dollar was already “too strong” in part because China holds down its currency, the yuan. “Our companies can’t compete with them now because our currency is too strong. And it’s killing us.”*
The yuan is “dropping like a rock,” Mr. Trump said, dismissing recent Chinese actions to support it as done simply “because they don’t want us to get angry.”
Conclusions
Triggered sharpened profit-taking in the Dollar.
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Trump's 'Open-Mouth Operations' Make Twitter Key for FX Traders International Trade |
Traders in the $5.1 trillion-a-day foreign-exchange market should put Donald Trump’s Twitter account at the top of their daily reading list.
That’s the advice of David Woo, a foreign-exchange, rates and emerging-market strategist in New York at Bank of America Corp., who expects the president-elect will use tweets with increasing frequency for his jawboning on the value of the dollar. The currency tumbled 1.2 percent Tuesday after Trump said the greenback is too strong and “it’s killing us” in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
“I’m telling everybody to get a Twitter account,” Woo said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “It would not surprise me over the course of the next month, you get strong U.S. data, dollar goes up 3 percent and three days later, the president of the United States is going to be tweeting at three o’clock in the morning saying guess what, the dollar’s now overvalued by 5.1 percent, and the dollar’s going to dump.”
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which measures the greenback against 10 major peers, has fallen for the last three three weeks as traders questioned the sustainability of some of the most popular wagers on Wall Street since Trump’s election victory, including bullish dollar bets. The currency had rallied to a 14-year high against the euro earlier this month on speculation that the president-elect’s spending pledges will fuel inflation and prompt the Fed to tighten monetary policy.
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US eases sanctions against Sudan, citing humanitarian improvements Africa |
The US government has eased sanctions against Sudan, in a step towards normalising relations with a designated terrorism sponsor whose leader has been indicted on war crimes charges.
he moves come amid a general shift of alliances and diplomatic priorities in east Africa, as major world and regional powers seek influence in an unstable but important part of the continent.
“This is definitely a geopolitical decision. It is not about values, democracy and human rights,” said Ahmed Soliman, an expert in East Africa at Chatham House, the London thinktank.
President Omar al-Bashir, who took power in a military coup in 1989, faces genocide charges at the international criminal court.
However, the veteran leader has has been welcomed by leaders across Africa and there have been intensifying contacts between Khartoum and the European Union too, prompted largely by concerns over immigration.
The order signed by Barack Obama in the last days of his administration will allow US firms to trade in Sudan.
“Treasury’s sanctions are aimed at encouraging a change in behaviour, and in the case of Sudan, our sanctions were intended to pressure the Government of Sudan to change the way it treats its people,” said Adam J Szubin, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, in a statement.
Magnus Taylor, a Nairobi-based analyst at the International Crisis Group, said many international powers had long wanted to work with Sudan but internal conflicts there had stymied hopes of improved relations. “On the migration issue in particular, the international community now wants to work with Sudan and it is felt that isolation has not helped come up with solutions,” Taylor said.
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Carlyle to buy Africa's leading rating agency Africa |
US buyout group Carlyle has agreed to buy Africa’s largest rating agency by customers in a bet on future growth in the continent’s capital markets.
The acquisition of Global Credit Ratings (GCR), which rates more credits in Africa than global rivals Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, shows how private equity funds are seeking to capitalise on the need for banks and insurers to understand the credit risk of local counterparties.
Local credit ratings have already become a lucrative market for agencies in India as its capital markets have opened to midsized companies in addition to big corporate issuers of debt. Dealmakers are betting on a similar trend in Africa.
Even so, it is a rare pan-African financial acquisition by a buyout group, with GCR operating in 20 countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia with more than 400 clients.
Terms of the acquisition of the Johannesburg- and Lagos-based rating agency, made by the sub-Saharan African buyout fund raised by Carlyle in 2014, have not been disclosed.
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How Was the Okavango Delta Formed? Africa |
Now have a look at a satellite image of the Okavango Delta: an 18 000 square kilometre wetland wilderness teeming with wildlife miraculously appearing in a vast dry sand basin in landlocked northern Botswana.
You have to stop and wonder: this is odd? How did this happen?
The short answer: The Okavango Delta is a fluke of nature.
The entire wetland was born as a tiny trickle in the remote highlands of Angola.
The trickle is nothing special. If you came across it while wading through the thick miombo bush, you might comment about how nice it is to see a stream, and move onto something more interesting.
But this dribble is the humble beginning of an epic 1000-kilometre river journey through three African countries. From its source in the Angolan highlands, the trickle joins forces with other small tributaries, creating a bigger river called the Cuito. The Cuito continues south towards Namibia, gaining speed and size as the Cubango River joins in too.
Eventually, it all culminates in the mighty Okavango River.
RT allanolingo: SOUTH SUDAN President Salva Kiir sacks Central Bank Governor Kornelio Mayik as inflation hits 800%
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Kenya set for higher titanium royalties as global prices double @BD_Africa Kenyan Economy |
Base Resources Limited, which mines the titanium ore in Kwale, said yesterday the improved price signals better prospects for the country in terms of royalty fees.
In 2015, the firm paid royalties amounting to Sh260.7 million and this is expected to rise as operations increase in 2017.
“Royalties are paid based on sales and the improved market conditions for ilmenite will be good news for Kenya as it means there will be more royalties from the revenues we make from the sales,” said Base Titanium external affairs manager Simon Wall.
The Australian mining firm in an operational update said it had hit a new production high of three million tonnes between September and December 2016.
The Kwale-based miner exports ilmenite, which is an ore of titanium (titanium-iron oxide) that is used in the manufacture of paints, plastics, paper, sunscreen, cosmetics and fabric pigmentation.
The firm projects increased demand for the product with further rise in prices as it continues to secure forward sales currently stretching to next month.
The mineral which was trading at a low of Sh6,000 per tonne ($60) in June now retails at about Sh14,000 per tonne ($140), an more than 130 per cent growth. Kenya exports most of its ilmenite to China.
Base, which produced 117,000 metric tonnes of the product in the last quarter of the year has an annual average of about 450,000 metric tonnes.
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Kenya's stock exchange is the world's worst performer so far this year @business Kenyan Economy |
Kenyan stock prices at more than three-year lows may have further to fall with domestic investors favoring bonds and foreign buyers waiting for lower valuations, the head of the bourse said.
Shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange have dropped 6.9 percent since Jan. 1, extending last year’s 8.5 percent drop, because of jitters among investors about elections scheduled for August. The yield on Kenya’s benchmark 10-year bond has fallen almost 200 basis points to 14.02 percent on Tuesday from a high of 16 percent in February, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“Because of issues around volatility in the markets, most pension schemes over the past two years have lost value in their equity holdings so they want to play a bit safer,” NSE Chief Executive Officer Geoffrey Odundo said in an interview Monday at his office in the capital. “Interest rates have historically given them a better performance so that is why they are willing to buy government paper.”
Kenya’s stock exchange is the world’s worst performer so far this year, with the decline dragging valuations to the weakest since 2009, when Bloomberg began compiling the data.
The recent decline may present a buying opportunity for investors, particularly “liquid stocks” including Safaricom Ltd., East Africa’s biggest mobile-phone company, and East African Breweries Ltd., the region’s largest brewer, and KCB Group, the No. 1 bank by assets, Exotix Partners said in an e-mailed note on Monday.
“We see it bottoming at some point,” Odundo said. “Foreigners are waiting for better prices and are picking stocks at fairly low prices and this has dragged the index downwards, especially given that when the stocks that really drive volume -- which is the telcos and the banking sector -- fall, they drag the index down,” Odundo said.
The NSE issued a profit warning last year when it said full-year earnings will drop at least 25 percent. Odundo said the warning was the result of “difficult” markets last year, while predicting a turnaround in 2017 as the exchange brings new products online.
“‘We are going to get derivatives; we are looking at new products around exchange-traded funds, global depository receipts,” he said. “A lot of focus around new product will create new feel around the stock market and make our markets more attractive to international investors given the kind of products we are bringing on board.”
The NSE said in October it’s evaluating “several” ETF applications and plans to introduce a derivatives market, without providing a timeframe.
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