Saturday, December 31, 2011

Tanzania Stock Market Commentary – Week Ending December 2, 2011

The DAR ALSI moved up 9bps to 1,303.8. Top gainers were Swissport (+1.2% to TZS 820) and NMB (+1.2% to TZS 850). There were 9.7m Tanzania Tea Packers (TATEPA) shares traded at TZS 230 per share (-51.6% from TZS 475-market price) in one deal that made the tea company the week’s top value trader and top decliner. Other actively traded counters were NMB and TWIGA.

In company news, Serengeti Breweries commissioned its Moshi plant with capacity to brew 500,000hcl and is expandable by an additional 300,000hcl. This brings the brewery’s total capacity to 1.5mhcl. Serengeti Breweries is a subsidiary of East African Breweries Ltd.

Swiss company, Augusta Energy, has been awarded a USD 500m contract by the government to supply 540,000t of oil to the country for the first two months of 2012. The contract marks the introduction in Tanzania of a new bulk procurement system for oil imports.

Source: African Alliance

Tanzania: Stock Exchange in Dar es Salaam Still Standing Strong

Sebastian Mrindoko

It continued to offer its core business that is a platform for intermediation of the securities in Tanzania and allowing providing value to the listed securities.

It also continued with an important task of regulating the market to ensure investor protection, efficient processes and best practices. "The 2011 has been a good year for the equity market against the backdrop of challenges seen in the macro-economic parameters like the weak shilling against major currencies, high inflation, high interest rates," said the DSE Chief Executive Officer, Mr Gabriel Kitua, in an interview over the bourse performances.

This year, African Barrick Gold (ABG) cross-listed and Precision Air will be listed on Wednesday December 21. The two companies have added an opportunity for them to be able to fund their future growth through issuance of bonds or additional shares through our capital markets.

According to Mr Kitua, the new companies also have widened the investment opportunities to Tanzanians that has always been limited. The value of listed securities appreciated improving the wealth and so the livelihood of the investors holding the stocks in our market. For example, the Tanzania Share Index that tracks movement in value of listed domestic companies appreciated by 22 per cent from 930.09 points in January to 1,142.97 points as of November 2011.

Euro could become world's leading currency: Noyer

PARIS (Reuters) - The euro could become the world's leading currency in the next decade if leaders of the single-currency bloc succeed in tightening fiscal integration, European Central Bankpolicymaker Christian Noyer said in an article to be published in the Journal du Dimanche.

European leaders struck a historic deal at an emergency summit in Brussels on December 9 to draft a new treaty for deeper economic union, in an attempt to stem the debt crisis that is threatening to cause the collapse of the single currency.

The news temporarily calmed markets. But concerns quickly resurfaced as the final details of the agreement have yet to be determined and a new treaty could take up to three months to negotiate.

Ratings agency Fitch has said it doubts a comprehensive solution to the crisis can be found and urged more decisive action from the ECB.

Market Summary November 21, 2011

streaming quotes: ON

Chart for NASDAQ Composite Index (^IXIC)

Symbol	Last	Change
Dow	11,547.31	248.85 (2.11%)
Nasdaq	2,523.14	49.36 (1.92%)
S&P 500	1,192.98	22.67 (1.86%)
10-Yr Bond	1.9620%	0.05
NYSE Volume		0
Nasdaq Volume		0

Indices: US - World | Most Actives

Advances & Declines

	NYSE	NASDAQ
Advances	472 (15%)	436 (16%)
Declines	2,650 (83%)	2,130 (80%)
Unchanged	62 (2%)	85 (3%)
Up Vol*	269 (6%)	419 (20%)
Down Vol*	3,969 (93%)	1,641 (79%)
Unch. Vol*	11 (0%)	11 (1%)
New Hi's	122	114
New Lo's	199	343

^*in millions

more...

Your Lawmaker Getting Rich off of Insider Trading?

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Are YOU ready for Dow 7,000?

It may be shocking to hear us say that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is headed for 7,000 ...

But, yes, we firmly believe that we’re going to see the broad U.S. stock market fall another 35% from here ... AT LEAST!
Just look at what's happened recently...
• The Federal Reserve warned of "significant downside risks to the economic outlook" and the International Monetary Fund said "the global economy is in a dangerous new phase."
• Bond yields in Italy, Spain, and France are exploding higher – indicating that the world’s smartest investors expect an outright catastrophe overseas.
• And all the while, countries like Germany and China are effectively saying they will NOT support bailouts of all these faltering nations!
In response, the U.S. stock market has started plunging anew andthe major averages are sitting at critical levels, with a potential crash coming at any time!

PROVIDERS

China inflation, output create room for pro-growth steps

By Nick Edwards and Langi Chiang

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese industrial output grew at its weakest annual pace in a year in October and inflation fell sharply, raising expectations Beijing will do more to support economic growth by "fine tuning" policy.

A flurry of data on Wednesday showed that China's factories are bearing the brunt of a modest economic slowdown even as consumer spending and investment in assets such as roads and other infrastructure remain resilient.

China's annual inflation rate fell to 5.5 percent in October from September's 6.1 percent -- the biggest drop in the annual rate from one month to the next since February 2009 -- and a further pullback from July's three-year peak of 6.5 percent.

http://beta.finance.yahoo.com/news/china-october-inflation-eases-wen-022643093.html

Euro plunges against greenback: Bloomberg

A illustration picture shows a Swiss Post clerk as he exchanges Swiss francs into Euros at a counter in a Swiss Post office in Bern

Traders fled the single currency amid concern Italy will join Greece in struggling to form a new regime strong enough to implement the austerity measures many investors believe are badly needed. More »

Why U.S. Markets Are Entangled in the EU Crisis

Breakout

Europe isn't getting closer to a solution but rather a dissolution of the entire euro zone. Regardless of identifying the tail and the dog, the wagging itself is going to end in tears for markets around the world.More »

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

China: US currency bill would have repercussions

BEIJING (AP) — China stepped up its criticism Tuesday of a proposed U.S. law to punish countries with artificially low currencies, saying there would be serious repercussions for the world's two biggest economies if it is passed.

The criticism comes after U.S. senators voted Monday to open a week of debate on the bill that would allow the government to impose additional duties on products from countries that subsidize exports by undervaluing their currencies.

How worried China is about the proposed law can be seen by the fact that the Foreign Ministry, the Commerce Ministry and central bank all issued statements denouncing it.

Bill Clinton’s Advice to President Obama on Jobs

- The Daily Ticker

Asked what specific advice he has for Obama, Clinton suggests the President focus on creating jobs in two ways: public-private business partnerships and clean energy.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/bill-clinton-advice-president-obama-jobs-start-clean-142127429.html;_ylt=AojZagol0nehGVCvOImtWWe7YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1YzduN2FkBHBvcwMzBHNlYwN0b3BTdG9yaWVzBHNsawNiaWxsY2xpbnRvbnM-?sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=

IMF: World economy enters 'dangerous new phase'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The world economy has entered a "dangerous new phase," according to the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. As a result, the international lending organization has sharply downgraded its economic outlook for the United States and Europe through the end of next year.

The IMF expects the U.S. economy to grow just 1.5 percent this year and 1.8 percent in 2012. That's down from its June forecast of 2.5 percent in 2011 and 2.7 percent next year.

The Coming Collapse: “We Can Buy Time, But We Can’t Change the Outcome”

The Ayn Rand Institute held its annual "Atlas Shrugged Revolution" dinner Thursday night in New York City.
In attendance were a number of financial luminaries and hedge fund managers, including Peter Schiff of EuroPacific Capital, John Tamny of RealClearMarkets, Dmitry Balyasny of Balyasny Asset Management and Scott Schweighauser of Aurora Investment Management.
The setting was the tony St. Regis Hotel on Fifth Avenue but there was nothing pleasant about the primary message coming from both the speakers and those in attendance: Western civilization is heading for hell and a hand basket, just like Rand predicted in her seminal novel.
In the accompanying video, ARI president Yaron Brook tells Henry why Rand's devotees believe the global economy is "heading for collapse."
In a nutshell, Brook believes politicians and policymakers have "no solutions" for the problems facing the globe.
"The fundamental problem," Brook says, is with the philosophical belief our society has that governments can solve problems and more rules and regulations are the answer to our economic ailments.
Barring "real structural change" to our economic underpinnings toward self-reliance and truelaissez-faire capitalism, "we can buy time, but we can't change the outcome," Brook says.
And what will that outcome be? A repeat of the Great Depression in the 'best'-case scenario, he says. And the worse-case? A repeat of the fall of the Roman Empire.
"I don't expect that, I think we'll rebound," Brook says. "But we have to remember that…civilizations in human history have declined, they've disappeared."
Aaron Task is the host of The Daily Ticker. You can follow him on Twitter at @atask or email him ataltask@yahoo.com

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Traders React to Global Central Bank Bailout

Stocks surged in the U.S. and Europe early Thursday while Treasury prices tumbled on news of a coordinated easing by global central banks.

"The Governing Council of the European Central Bank has decided, in coordination with the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank, to conduct three US dollar liquidity-providing operations with a maturity of approximately three months covering the end of the year," the ECB said in a statement.

Translation: The world's central bankers will provide as much money as necessary until year-end to stem a brewing funding crisis among European banks. The move follows a report yesterday that two European banks were unable to get short-term dollar funding in private markets and were forced to tap the ECB for $575 million.

Tanzania Revenue Authority Promises Less Port Congestion

Following the departure and takeover of all TISCAN operations earlier this month by the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), the Authority has pledged to increase efficiency in cargo clearance at the Dar es Salaam port.

According to the TRA, this move, which follows the expiration of the company's Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract, has been designed specifically in an effort to help unify customs operations and ease port congestion.

Some of the services that the TRA currently offers its clients include pre-arrival declaration processing, cargo scanning, computerized risk management and capacity building.

In the seven years since its establishment in the country, TISCAN was able to successfully employ innovative, custom-made services in order to ease the import of trade while, at the same time, securing government revenues.

Prior to the take over from TISCAN, the TRA Customs Department was in charge of handling the Pre-Arrival Destinations (PAD) documents for cargo not exceeding USD 5,000 as well as special consignments.

THURSDAY, 10 MARCH 2011 00:58

The Central Bank of Tanzania (BoT) has indicated in recent reports that it is not concerned about a possible further decline in the Tanzania shilling because a weaker currency could potentially help boost the country’s exports.

“The depreciation of the shilling is not excessive,” said Benno Ndulu, the governor of the Bank of Tanzania, during a recent conference in Dar es Salaam, “Over the last five years the shilling has depreciated by 20 percent, which translates annually into 4.5 percent each year.”

Governor Ndulu went on to explain that the difference in inflation between Tanzania and their trading partners currently stands at approximately 5 percent, which helps to explain the level of depreciation.

Belgian Firm Invests Sh4.5 Billion in Pride Tanzania

Dar es Salaam — Incofin Investment Management, a private Belgian company that invests in microfinance institutions (MFIs) through six investment funds, has recently made debt investments totalling $8.75 million in four African MFIs, including Pride Tanzania.

The company said in a statement late this week that it has invested Sh4.5 billion ($2.75 million) in the local organisation, which specialises in financing micro- and small-scale enterprises. The other beneficiaries of the Incofin investment are Lift Above Poverty Organisation (Lapo) of Nigeria; Sinapi Aba Trust (Sat) of Ghana; and First Allied Savings and Loans Limited (FASL), also of Ghana.

"All of the investments have been made through Incofin's Rural Impulse Fund II, which invests in MFIs that primarily serve rural areas and are deemed commercially viable," company noted in the statement.

"Incofin invested Sh4.5 billion (Sh2.75 million) in Pride Tanzania. As of December 31, 2009, Pride reported to the US-based non-profit Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) total assets of $38.9 million, a gross loan portfolio of $26.9 million, return on assets (ROA) of 3.12 per cent, return on equity (ROE) of 24.2 per cent and approximately 73,000 active borrowers," it added.

MARKET SUMMARY

Dow	11,295.81	-119.05	-1.04%

Nasdaq	2,529.14	0.00	0.00%

S&P 500	1,185.90	0.00	0.00%

10 Yr Bond(%)	2.0100%	+0.0240

Oil	87.90	-1.15	-1.29%

Gold	1,830.00	-24.40	-1.32%

Customize summary

Fri 8:35am ET- Briefing.com
S&P futures vs fair value: -1.80. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -1.80. Commodities are under pressure this morning. As such, the CRB Commodity Index...

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