The markets fear cliff-edge Brexit. Pound has fallen back to $1.325. Kit Juckes, foreign exchange analyst at Société Générale, says Johnson’s tough line on the post-Brexit trade talks has caught the markets by surprise. The news that UK PM Johnson plans to rule out (legally) any extension to the transition period after the UK leaves the EU has given sterling a kicking this morning.
The price of the American currency also declined in Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait, Arab Investment Bank, Emirates NBD, HSBC, Housing & Development Bank, recording EGP 15.99 for buying and EGP 16.09 for selling. The price of the US dollar against the local currency has witnessed a noticeable decline in banks since the beginning of this year, with the improvement of hard currency flows, especially from tourism and remittances.
Central European currencies firmed on Wednesday, gaining on expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would leave rates unchanged with a hawkish tone. The Fed is expected to leave its federal funds rate unchanged at a level between 1.50% and 1.75% when it ends a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday.
Traders and businesses are hoping for respite in the foreign exchange market after the Bank of South Sudan said it would inject dollars into the market to protect the local currency. The South Sudan pound has been weakening against the dollar since September after the payment of several months of salaries in arrears. “The pound has lost value in the past two months due to the impact of the recent payment of salaries,” said Central Bank Governor Dier Tong.
A year ago, investors were fleeing stocks as indices endured their most dramatic declines since the end of the global financial crisis. But 2019 has turned out to be a banner year for stock markets, one that holds important lessons for investors. Be greedy when others are fearful. A year ago, stocks were in the middle of their worst December since 1931.
On Monday, Riyad Bank and National Commercial Bank (decided to end preliminary merger talks, the two said in separate stock exchange filings). NCB was up 0.3%. Saudi Aramco slipped 0.3% in early trade after four straight days of gains. The state-owned company will join MSCI on Tuesday. Aramco listed 1.5% of its shares at 32 riyals ($8.53) on the kingdom's Tadawul exchange on Dec. 11 in the world's largest initial public offering (IPO).
The best performers of the session on the DAX were Deutsche Bank AG NA O.N. (DE:DBKGn), which rose 3.56% or 0.239 points to trade at 6.960 at the close. Meanwhile, Wirecard AG (DE:WDIG) added 3.16% or 3.300 points to end at 107.750 and Adidas AG (DE:ADSGN) was up 2.58% or 7.20 points to 285.80 in late trade.
The nation’s stock market opened the week with a N76.6bn gain as the All-Share Index rose by 60 basis points to settle at 26,695.18bps following major price appreciation in Dangote Cement Plc, Access Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc.
The market capitalization of equities increased to N12.884tn from N12.801tn as the year-to-date loss eased to -15.1 per cent.
“Today, the RTS Index may continue its upward movement. Investors on the global markets will likely continue their pre-New Year rally, taking into account the volatility indicators and global stock bourses, as they base their optimism on the prospects of the U.S. and China signing their trade deal,” investment company Olma’s senior analyst Anton Startsev said.
DGLD is a digital asset (token) created by CoinShares, Europe’s Largest Digital Asset Manager, Blockchain.com, the most trusted platform for cryptocurrency products, and MKS (Switzerland) SA, part of the world’s most trusted gold group. At creation, each DGLD token represents 1/10th of a troy ounce of physical gold stored in Swiss vaults for which token holders can swap or physically redeem.
It has been an intense and unpredictable first decade for cryptocurrencies. The cryptoverse today counts over 4,000 different tokens, the lifeblood of over 4,000 new attempts to disrupt technology.
The crypto markets continued to pull back this week, with market benchmark Bitcoin (BTC) now hovering near the ~US$7000 price level. The price of BTC fell ~6% across the week while the number two and three crypto assets on Brave New Coin’s market cap table, ETH and XRP, fell 5% each. The overall crypto market cap slid ~5%.
Coinfloor, the U.K.’s longest-running cryptocurrency exchange, plans to delist ethereum next month, citing an unclear future of hard forks and the need for onerous technical support for the second biggest coin by market capitalization.
National Commercial Bank, Saudi Arabia’s biggest lender, has ended talks to merge with Riyad Bank, a deal that would have created a lender with $200 billion in assets. The boards agreed to terminate talks, according to a statements to the Saudi stock market, without giving further details.
The electronic system for the UAE's Tax Refunds for Tourists Scheme exceeded all expectations in its first year, according to Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director-general of the Federal Tax Authority (FTA). He revealed that the scheme has processed a total of 2.83 million applications since its launch in November 2018.
First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the UAE’s largest bank, has further expanded into Saudi Arabia with the opening of a branch in Jeddah. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) has granted FAB a licence to open three branches in the kingdom, with the bank commencing operations in Riyadh and Al Khobar earlier in 2019.
INFOMINEO RESOURCES
A highlight of some of our resources to expand your knowledge on Africa and the Middle East.
This infographic provides a country profile of Nigeria, listing its main country indicators, major industries, resources, imports & exports with mention of the country's key trading partners.
Aggregate assets of Nigerian commercial banks grew by approximately 11% between 2012 – 2016 to reach NGN 31.7 trillion.This performance was strengthened by the growth in bank loans (~14%), particularly benefiting the Oil & Gas sector. On the liabilities side, bank deposits grew by approximately 9% between 2012 – 2016 driven by the foreign currency and saving accounts.
INFOMINEO
Infomineo is a data and research service provider, that specializes in Africa and the Middle East, dedicated to supporting global companies in getting access to information that powers their investment decisions in the region. Through a direct presence in key markets such as the UAE, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and Morocco, Infomineo provides a quick access to market data on key questions such as: market and product prioritization, partner identification, commercial due diligence, route to market, supply chain mapping and competitive analysis among others. Along with conductingCustom Research for clients, Infomineo also delivers an Expert Network service and a Business Translation service.
INFOMINEO, Value added business research, Casablanca, Morocco