NAIROBI, April 1 (Reuters) - The following company announcements, scheduled economic indicators, debt and currency market moves and political events may affect African markets on Thursday.
GLOBAL MARKETS
Stocks crept higher on Thursday following their weakest quarter in a year, while higher Treasury yields supported the dollar, as investors parsed the details of a $2 trillion U.S. government spending plan and hoped for strong jobs data later in the week.
WORLD OIL PRICES
Crude prices rose on Thursday, recouping some of the previous session's losses on expectations that a meeting of OPEC and its allies later on Thursday would yield output constraint in the face of resurgent COVID-19 infections in some regions.
SOUTH AFRICA MARKETS
South Africa's rand rallied to its best in a week on Wednesday, after data showed the trade surplus widened in February on increased export activity.
MARKETS
Kenya's shilling (KES=) was steady on Wednesday, and traders said they expected it to strengthen, due to offshore investor inflows into a Treasury bond sale and release of some money to the government from a new International Monetary Fund programme.
ELECTRICITY
Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has set up a team to review power purchase agreements signed over the years by the state power distributor, which has been making losses in the recent past.
I&M HOLDINGS RESULTS
Kenyan lender I&M Holdings (IMH.NR) said on Wednesday its 2020 full-year pretax profit fell by a quarter to 10.95 billion shillings ($100.09 million), as its loan loss provisions jumped due to effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
BANK UGANDA RESULTS
Uganda's biggest lender, Stanbic (SBU.UG), posted an 8.9% decline in its pretax profit as the impact of the coronavirus crisis drove up impairments.
FINANCE MINISTER
Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan has picked Mwigulu Nchemba as her finance minister, she said in a televised announcement on Wednesday.
REPUBLIC OF CONGO MINING
Congo's state cobalt buyer announced a responsible sourcing standard for artisanal cobalt on Wednesday as it launched its ambitious move to bring all informal cobalt mining in the country under state control.
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK PROJECTS
The West African Development Bank will finance projects worth over 5 billion euros ($5.9 billion) in the period from 2021 to 2025 in the eight-nation monetary union, the bank's president Serge Ekue said on Wednesday.