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Tuesday 17th of July 2018 |
Morning Africa |
egister and its all Free.
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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MeerKAT radio telescope images Milky Ways blazing heart @AstronomyNow Africa |
South Africa’s newly inaugurated 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope, a precursor to the Square Kilometre Array, has imaged the heart of the Milky Way in unprecedented detail, revealing long, magnetised filaments and the blazing core where a supermassive black hole lurks unseen at optical wavelengths.
“We wanted to show the science capabilities of this new instrument,” said Fernando Camilo, chief scientist at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory. “The centre of the galaxy was an obvious target: unique, visually striking and full of unexplained phenomena, but also notoriously hard to image using radio telescopes. Although it’s early days with MeerKAT, and a lot remains to be optimised, we decided to go for it – and were stunned by the results.”
Built by the SARAO and inaugurated 13 July by Deputy President David Mabuza, MeerKAT’s 64 dishes eventually will be part of the Square Kilometre Array, the world’s largest radio telescope with hundreds of distributed dishes in Australia and South Africa. As it stands, MeerKAT’s dishes provide 2,000 unique antenna pairs, “resulting in high-fidelity images of the radio sky,” the SARAO said in a news release.
Earth’s Sun orbits the galaxy’s core at a distance of some 25,000 light years. While intervening gas and dust shroud the hidden heart of the galaxy where a super-massive black hole is known to reside, radio waves pass through to provide a glimpse of its hidden features. MeerKAT’s initial observations provide a tantalising hint of things to come.
Of special interest are long magnetised filaments discovered in the 1980s that are seen near the central black hole and nowhere else. Their origin is a mystery.
“The MeerKAT image has such clarity,” marvelled Farhad Yusef-Zadeh of Northwestern University in the United States, an expert on the filamentary structures seen near the central black hole. “The image shows so many features never before seen, including compact sources associated with some of the filaments, that it could provide the key to cracking the code and solve this three-decade riddle.”
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05-DEC-2016:: "We have a deviate, Tomahawk." #HelsinkiSummit Law & Politics |
However, my starting point is the election of President Donald Trump because hindsight will surely show that Russia ran a seriously sophisticated programme of interference, mostly digital. Don DeLillo, who is a prophetic 21st writer, writes as follows in one of his short stories: The specialist is monitoring data on his mission console when a voice breaks in, “a voice that carried with it a strange and unspecifiable poignancy”. 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.” “There’s some interference. I have gone redundant but I’m not sure it’s helping.” “We are clearing an outframe to locate source.” “Thank you, Colorado.” “It is probably just selective noise. You are negative red on the step-function quad.” “It was a voice,” I told them. “We have just received an affirm on selective noise... We will correct, Tomahawk. In the meantime, advise you to stay redundant.” The voice, in contrast to Colorado’s metallic pidgin, is a melange of repartee, laughter, and song, with a “quality of purest, sweetest sadness”. “Somehow we are picking up signals from radio programmes of 40, 50, 60 years ago.”
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What Everyone but @realDonaldTrump Knows: Russia Is Armed and Dangerous @dailybeast Law & Politics |
Back in the early ’50s, Winston Churchill described U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles as “a bull who carries his own china closet with him.” NATO heads of state must be thinking the same thing about Donald J. Trump after his recent performance at the NATO summit meeting in Brussels. There, the American president spent more time badgering his allies over inadequate defense spending than discussing what must be done to check Russia’s continual political warfare campaign against NATO, and the Western alliance generally.
Apprehensions are running high among NATO defense ministers as to what Trump may concede to Vladimir Putin in their July 16 meeting in Helsinki. Putin is expected to ask the Trump to withdraw the United States from upcoming NATO exercises in Eastern Europe, and the president hasn’t ruled out agreeing to do so. He continues to describe Putin’s Russia as a “competitor,” not an adversary, which is bizarre, to say the least, as the latest (December 2017) iteration of The National Security Strategy of the United States of America, the U.S. government’s definitive statement about threats to the nation and how to combat them, describes Russia and China as the most serious threats to American power, influence, and interests, surpassing global terrorism.
After a long hiatus, the U.S. national security establishment is placing top priority on identifying the warfighting capabilities and intentions of both of those nation states, and reconfiguring American military doctrine, training, and organizational structure to meet future challenges.
Of the two rising powers, most defense experts see Russia as by far the more menacing threat, at least in the short term, despite China’s far greater economic resources and military spending. It isn’t hard to see why.
Over the last decade Russia had demonstrated a marked proclivity to use, or threaten to use, military force to achieve its foreign policy goals, particularly when it comes to ensuring compliance among regimes within its own sphere of influence. Vladimir Putin, in the words of former U.S. ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul, “has anointed himself the leader of a renewed nationalist conservative movement fighting a decadent West,” and is determined to re-establish his country as a leading player in international politics. The Kremlin has invested billions in sophisticated social media networks and information warfare techniques, and employed them in an “active measures” campaign to de-stabilize relations between members of the Western alliance, and shape political developments within their societies in a manner congenial to Russian interests.
Without question the most prominent active measures campaign to date has been the effort to shape the U.S. presidential election of 2016, but Western defense experts have identified a long and growing list of other, similar efforts in Europe and the Balkans.
By intervening in the Syrian War, Russia has successfully shifted the strategic balance in favor of the Assad regime, and there’s little doubt that Moscow intends to remain a major player in the Middle East for a long time to come.
In its hostility to the United States, Western Europe, and democratic ideas and institutions, Putin’s foreign policy bears an uncanny resemblance to that of his Soviet forebears. At the heart of Putin’s view of world affairs is what George Kennan, the father of America’s containment policy during the Cold War, called “Russia’s traditional and instinctive sense of insecurity… They have always feared foreign penetration, feared direct contact between the Western world and their own, feared what would happen if Russians learned the truth about the world within. And they learned to seek security only in the patient but deadly struggle for… destruction of rival power, never in compacts or compromises with it.”
No wonder there is so much talk about “Cold War II” in the international affairs journals.
Under former KGB officer Putin, the Russian state had developed a truly formidable capacity to integrate multiple instruments of hard and soft power in pursuit of its goals, often at the expense of the United States and NATO. “Hybrid warfare” is perhaps the best name for the Kremlin’s current geopolitical strategy, which combines conventional military operations and military intimidation, political front movements, multi-media propaganda campaigns, fake news, cyber warfare, traditional diplomacy, and economic threats. When intervention beyond Russia’s borders is called for, Moscow likes to employ local proxies to create a veneer of legitimacy for its actions, as they did in the Crimea and Ukraine.
Hybrid warfare, which blurs the line between peace and war, is nothing new. What is new, or at least unusual, is the skill and boldness with which Moscow has implemented it. In March 2014, right after the successful annexation of Crimea, the Russian Army provided logistical and intelligence assets to local Russian-speaking separatists in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Russians conducted large-scale military exercises right on the Russian-Ukrainian border, in addition to jamming the communications of Ukrainian Army units in the vicinity, in order to discourage a counterattack.
It worked brilliantly. So, too, has the Russian campaign to sow turbulence into American and European politics and society.
“Putin refrained from undertaking provocative foreign interventions and political warfare against the West until his armed services had been thoroughly revitalized.”
Russia’s hybrid warfare operations are now coordinated at a new National Defense Control Center in Moscow. This headquarters houses some fifty senior officials in the police, infrastructure, transport, information technology, and military sectors under the stewardship of the armed forces general staff. By all accounts the new control center has reduced administrative infighting among the various agencies of the Russian state, and significantly ratcheted up the speed and level of coordination of operations.
Effective hybrid warfare operations, and Russia’s quest to regain great power status, ultimately rest on the capabilities of its conventional military forces. That’s why Putin refrained from undertaking provocative foreign interventions and political warfare against the West until his armed services had been thoroughly revitalized in a sweeping reform and reconstruction program.
But what the Western alliance really needs badly, and soon, is nowhere in sight: An American president fully committed to working with European allies to develop a grand strategy for dealing with Russia’s multi-pronged assault on Western power and interests.
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Putins Attack on the U.S. Is Our Pearl Harbor via @politico Law & Politics |
In 2016, our country was targeted by an attack that had different operational objectives and a different overarching strategy, but its aim was every bit as much to devastate the American homeland as Pearl Harbor or 9/11. The destruction may not send pillars of smoke into the sky or come with an 11-digit price tag, and there’s no body count or casualty statistics—but the damage done has ravaged our institutions and shaken our belief in our immovability. But two years on, we still haven’t put any boats or men in the proverbial water. We still have not yet acted—just today, President Donald Trump, a beneficiary of this attack, exonerated the man who ordered it: Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.
"Fighting hybrid attacks requires an informed, prepared, mobilized population with the will to fight and to understand...The president of the United States...is disarming the American public in what should be the most important fight in our history."
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The shares plunged as much as 15 percent after Netflix added 5.2 million users in the period [BUY] International Trade |
The shares plunged as much as 15 percent after Netflix added 5.2 million users in the period, about a million fewer than it predicted. Its outlook for the current quarter also reflected a deceleration: The world’s largest paid online TV network expects to add 5 million customers, a slower pace than a year earlier.
Shareholders and analysts now have the job of weighing whether the slowdown is a blip or a longer-term problem. Netflix’s stock had more than doubled this year, with investors betting that the company will add tens of millions of customers around the world for years to come.
The stock fell to as low as $342 in extended trading, a decline that erased about $25 billion in market value.
Potential new customers may have also been distracted by the World Cup, a quadrennial soccer tournament that is among the most-watched TV events in the world.
Investors value Netflix at a far higher level than other media companies of similar size because of that potential for future growth. Its market valuation surpassed that of Walt Disney Co. this year, despite reporting less than a quarter of the revenue.
Netflix’s second-quarter revenue also came in short of projections. It posted $3.91 billion, compared with an average estimate of $3.94 billion. But the Los Gatos, California-based company hit a milestone: International customers accounted for a bigger piece of sales than domestic users.
Netflix executives expressed little concern on a call with analysts and investors, insisting their growth over the past 12 months has still exceeded expectations. Netflix fell short of its forecasts a couple years ago, a shortfall the company blamed at the time on the transition to chip-based credit cards.
“We never did find an explanation to that other than lumpiness in the business,” Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings said.
One reason for this shortfall may be a lack of content. Netflix released a thin slate of shows in the quarter, relative to its typical output. It didn’t add additional seasons of its biggest hits, such as “Stranger Things,” nor did a new show become a phenomenon. Ever since Netflix released “House of Cards” in 2013, the company has credited new seasons of original series with luring customers.
Netfllix did release a new season of “13 Reasons Why” and the Marvel series “Luke Cage,” as well as a breakout standup comedy special in Hannah Gadsby’s “Nanette.”
Profit was a bright spot in the latest quarter, but not by enough to reassure investors. Earnings amounted to 85 cents a share, topping the 79-cent estimate of analysts.
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China overloading poor nations with debt @opicgov P/CEO Washburn @Reuters Africa |
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - China is saddling poor nations with unsustainable debt through large-scale infrastructure projects that are not economically viable, the head of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) said on Monday.
The criticism of Beijing - targeted by President Donald Trump in a trade war that has sent ripples through economies around the world - comes as Washington seeks to ramp up development finance in the face of China’s global ambitions.
Unveiled in 2013, President Xi Jinping’s “Belt and Road” initiative aims to build an infrastructure network connecting China by land and sea to Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
China has pledged $126 billion for the plan, which has been praised by its supporters as a source of vital financing for infrastructure-starved partners in the developing world.
But in an interview with Reuters in Johannesburg, OPIC CEO Ray Washburne warned that the Chinese strategy created a debt trap for many poor nations.
“Just look at any project in these countries and they’re overbuilding the size,” he said. “We try to have countries realize that they’re indebting themselves to the Chinese.”
Washburne is not the first to warn of growing debt linked to Chinese infrastructure projects.
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde in April cautioned China’s Belt and Road partners against considering the financing as “a free lunch”.
Sri Lanka formally handed over commercial activities in its main southern port in the town of Hambantota to a Chinese company in December as part of a plan to convert $6 billion of loans that Sri Lanka owes China into equity.
U.S. officials have warned that a strategic port in the tiny Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti could be next, a prospect the government there has denied.
Washburne also voiced concern over a $360 million expansion of the airport in Zambia’s capital Lusaka currently being carried out with financing from the Exim Bank of China.
“The local economy isn’t benefiting from that. It’s a much too large airport. They’ll have too much debt on it. At some point, someone’s got to pay. Pay or the Chinese take control,” he said.
Lawmakers in the United States are advancing a new law - the BUILD Act - through Congress that Washburne says should bolster private U.S. investment in developing nations by doubling OPIC’s access to U.S. Treasury credit to $60 billion.
About a quarter of the active portfolio of OPIC, a government agency that helps U.S. businesses invest in emerging markets, is currently focused on Africa and it typically invests around $1 billion annually on the continent.
“With the right quality projects, it could double here,” Washburne said, adding that many investments would focus on the kinds of infrastructure projects Chinese firms are currently dominating.
“The Chinese are in with ports and railroads and highways, things that we need to be in as a competitor.”
OPIC this month launched an Africa-focused initiative that will earmark more than $1 billion over the next three years for projects supporting transportation, information and communications technology and value chains.
“Instead of giving them a fish, we want to teach them how to fish,” Washburne said. “They’ll have to stand on their own two feet. So we’re not in making loans or doing projects that don’t make economic sense.”
Conclusions
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DR Congos Kabila promotes blacklisted generals in army shake-up @AFP Africa |
Amisi and Numbi — both close Kabila allies — were put on a Washington sanctions blacklist in 2016 for actions that “undermine democratic processes in the DRC and to repress the political rights and freedoms of the Congolese people”.
A rebel leader during the second Congo war from 1998 to 2003, Amisi was suspended as the head of the army in 2012 after a UN report accused him of running a huge arms smuggling network supplying rebel groups.
He was cleared in 2014 and became regional commander of the first defence zone, which includes the capital Kinshasa.
Numbi, meanwhile, is said by critics to be the prime suspect in the murder of rights activist Floribert Chebeya in 2011, who was found dead a day after being summoned by the then police chief to his Kinshasa headquarters.
Numbi, who has denied any involvement, was relieved of his post, but Kabila named him as a “national hero” last year.
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Hundreds of Nigerian troops are missing after Boko Haram jihadists overran a military base in the remote northeast, security sources said Sunday Africa |
Hundreds of Nigerian troops are missing after Boko Haram jihadists overran a military base in the remote northeast, security sources said Sunday, in the second major assault on the armed forces in two days.
The militants invaded a base holding more than 700 soldiers in Yobe state -- where they abducted over 100 girls from a school earlier this year -- in an hours-long onslaught Saturday night, a military source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Fewer than 100 soldiers have returned following the attack, which took place just 24 hours after Boko Haram fighters ambushed a military convoy in neighbouring Borno state on Friday.
The two assaults have highlighted the tenuous hold Nigerian forces have on the ravaged region despite claims by President Muhammadu Buhari's government that the country is in a "post-conflict stabilisation phase".
"Boko Haram terrorists attacked troops of the 81st Division Forward Brigade at Jilli village in Geidam district. The terrorists came in huge numbers around 7:30 pm (1830 GMT) and overran the base after a fierce battle that lasted until 9:10 pm," said the military source.
"The base had 734 troops. Currently the commander of the base and 63 soldiers have made it to Geidam (60 kilometres away) while the remaining 670 are being expected," he said, without elaborating on their possible fate.
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.@abraajgroups Africa Fund Investors Are Seeking New Manager Africa |
A group of investors in Abraaj Group’s near-$1 billion sub-Saharan Africa fund are seeking a new manager, potentially complicating a broader sale process for the embattled firm’s asset management unit, according to people familiar with the matter.
Investors in the $990 million Abraaj Africa Fund III want to replace the Dubai-based company and have reached out to potential investors including Carlyle Group LP and London-based private equity investor Actis LLP, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. Deliberations are at an early stage and it’s unclear whether any of the buyout firms are interested, the people said.
Representatives for Abraaj, Carlyle and Actis declined to comment.
A move to replace Abraaj at the key emerging market fund could be a hurdle to efforts to sell the asset management business and raise liquidity at the firm. Abraaj filed for a court-supervised restructuring last month after it emerged that investors had commissioned an audit to look into alleged mismanagement of money in its health-care fund.
The companies managing the liquidation had been weighing bids from Cerberus Capital Management LP and Colony Capital Inc., people familiar with the matter have said. The liquidators prefer a lower offer from Cerberus and rival bidder Colony’s offer for the fund management platform was turned down, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.
Various options are being reviewed to ensure the long-term stability of the group and the joint provisional liquidators are committed to ensuring that a positive outcome is reached for creditors, investors and wider stakeholders, according to Sunday’s emailed statement from Deloitte.
Abraaj had an “unusual” business model reliant on short-term borrowing, and key financial statements are missing or nonexistent, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers seen by Bloomberg News last week. The company owes lenders $1.1 billion after the delayed sale of K-Electric in Pakistan led it to tap its health-care fund without investor consent, according to the report.
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Energy CS @ketercharles criticizes state crackdown at @KenyaPower @StandardKenya Kenyan Economy |
The visibly angry minister used an occasion at Stima Plaza last evening, which was to unveil new officials led by acting Chief Executive Officer Jared Omondi Othieno, to lash out at State agencies. CEO Keter said that although he supported the fight against corruption, the crackdown at the power utility firm that netted 19 top managers was in bad faith and a mockery of the rules of natural justice. The CS compared the operation that almost crippled Kenya Power to the 1993 fatal plane crash that killed an entire Zambian national football team. “It is such a difficult time for me to talk when we have a team of very competent engineers who are not with us. This is like the time Zambia lost a whole football team. A whole senior management team gone is like losing a whole football team," he said. He added: “Sometimes you wish you can be that sacrificial lamb for others to survive; especially the innocent ones. I don’t want to talk about the merits of the case as I know the law will take its course but at times we have to speak out for the innocent.” The minister also used the opportunity to encourage remaining staff not to be discouraged by the events that led to the arraigning in court of their 19 colleagues. “Let's not shy away and let's make decisions that are good for the country. If KP goes down, the whole energy sector collapses. We want to encourage you to be firm and strong. We also want to encourage shareholders and our donors that, as Government, we will all offer support to this company to ensure operations are normal.” Energy PS Joseph Njoroge, who was also present, said: "In spite of the challenges we are facing, let's not forget about the customer. Service to the public is critical. I want to plead that despite the challenges we are facing, let's put our best foot forward to ensure customer satisfaction.”
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N.S.E Today |
Its all about political and Geopolitical volatility now. And that volatility is emanating from one place which is quite extraordinary. The IMF characterised the situation as follows ''The Global Expansion: Still Strong but Less Even, More Fragile, Under Threat'' Russia's FM Lavrov said the #Putin-#Trump talks went "better than super" #HelsinkiSummit The #HelsinkiSummit Presser was mind boggling and reminded me of a Predator Putin] who has his Prey [Putin] captured and cannot quite believe it and has to suppress his very natural instinct to Kill his Prey. Mr. Putin is a GrandMaster and it all starts with recognizing him as such ~ look at the ROI [Return on Investment - It is said Russia's economy is the size of Italy's] Netflix plunged 14% in after hours trading after announcing it added 5.2m users in the period and missed analysts expectations. Investors value Netflix at a far higher level than other media companies of similar size because of that potential for future growth. Its market valuation surpassed that of Walt Disney Co. this year, despite reporting less than a quarter of the revenue [Bloomberg] But the Los Gatos, California-based company hit a milestone: International customers accounted for a bigger piece of sales than domestic users. And thats the point - The new market is the international one and Netflix is only just getting started. Buy Netflix heavily at the current price of $349.00. Its my 2nd recommended Trade of the Year after Twitter which i recommended on January 2nd. WTI Crude Oil was last at 67.26 a barrel some ways off 2018 highs around $75.00. In an interview with Reuters in Johannesburg, OPIC CEO Ray Washburne warned that the Chinese strategy created a debt trap for many poor nations. “Just look at any project in these countries and they’re overbuilding the size,” he said. “We try to have countries realize that they’re indebting themselves to the Chinese.” Washburne is not the first to warn of growing debt linked to Chinese infrastructure projects. International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde in April cautioned China’s Belt and Road partners against considering the financing as “a free lunch”. On 18-JUN-2018 I said ''So the first overarching Point, is that creditors are not Santa Claus and miscues will exact a very heavy price, Countries will be "Hambantota-ed"'' Angola braved the #Eurobond market yesterday, issuing $500m to increase its $1.25bn deal from May. The Kenya Shilling was last trading at 100.63 and is +2.9% YTD and the best performing African Currency versus the Dollar in 2018, which is a noteworthy outcome. Sharply higher inward remittances and unexpectedly higher ''amnesty'' monies have supported.
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N.S.E Equities - Commercial & Services |
Kenya’s Safaricom is in “advanced talks” with the Ethiopian government to introduce its popular M-Pesa mobile money service to neighbouring Ethiopia, a market of 100 million people, two sources said on Tuesday to Reuters. Britain’s Vodafone, Safaricom’s parent company, will license the use of the M-Pesa trade name to an Ethiopia-based bank while Safaricom will host the servers in Nairobi, one telecoms industry source told Reuters. Ethiopia’s state telecommunications monopoly, Ethio telecom, will carry the service, the source added. Started in 2007, M-Pesa has nearly 30 million users in Kenya. June 6th I said '' I fully expect Vodacom to work through Safaricom PLC . This can add up to 20% to Safaricom's share price. Its a big Deal and Ethiopia is a 100m market and ripe for the taking for M-PESA in particular'' July 2nd I said :: I am sure our very own Safaricom must have already presented the Prime minister [Abiy Ahmed] with a copy of the MIT research on M-Pesa which confirmed access to mobile-money services increased daily per capita consumption levels of two percent of Kenyan households, lifting them out of extreme poverty. This is a big deal. Safaricom rallied +1.77% to close at 28.75 and traded 3.96m shares worth 113.899m. There is plenty of scope to the Upside. Safaricom sits -12.21% below a record closing High set in early April and that is a near term target.
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Africa |
The CS Energy said that although he supported the fight against corruption, the crackdown at the power utility firm that netted 19 top managers was in bad faith and a mockery of the rules of natural justice. [KTN News] The CS compared the operation that almost crippled Kenya Power to the 1993 fatal plane crash that killed an entire Zambian national football team. “It is such a difficult time for me to talk when we have a team of very competent engineers who are not with us. This is like the time Zambia lost a whole football team. A whole senior management team gone is like losing a whole football team," he said. “Let's not shy away and let's make decisions that are good for the country. If KP goes down, the whole energy sector collapses. We want to encourage you to be firm and strong. We also want to encourage shareholders and our donors that, as Government, we will all offer support to this company to ensure operations are normal.” The issue for Investors is whether the current intervention is sufficient. Most Investors I speak to were looking at a parachuting in of an independent Turn-Around Specialist at the minimum. KPLC retreated -2.29% to close at 6.40 and traded 723,100 shares. KPLC is -29.67% in 2018.
ARM Cement has been a white-knuckled roller coaster ride in 2018. ARM slumped -80.38% start of the year through early June when it closed at an 11 Year low of 2.55. Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes ARM then rallied +88.23% early June through this mornings Open. ARM corrected -6.25% today to close at 4.50 and traded 1.287m shares. After all that ARM remains -65.38% in 2018.
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