The following company announcements, scheduled economic indicators, debt and currency market moves and political events may affect African markets on Friday.
GLOBAL MARKETS
Asian stocks inched up on Friday, despite Wall Street declines, but struggled to make deeper gains as worries about a faltering economic recovery kept investors to the sidelines or seeking safer harbour in assets such as the Japanese yen.
WORLD OIL PRICES
Oil prices drifted lower on Friday, pausing after three days of gains, as producers prepared to resume operations in the Gulf of Mexico and data showed Saudi Arabian exports rose from record lows. O/R
SOUTH AFRICA MARKETS
South Africa's rand extended its recent rally to a new six-month peak on Thursday after the central bank kept lending rates unchanged.
OIL
Nigeria's state oil company on Thursday lowered its October official selling prices for Bonny Light BON-E and Qua Iboe crude oil QUA-E to dated Brent minus 37 cents and minus 56 cents per barrel, respectively.
CURRENCIES
The Nigerian naira is expected to weaken against the dollar in the week ahead mainly due to shortages of hard currencies while the Zambian kwacha will also be under pressure.
MARKETS
The Kenyan shilling (KES=) weakened on Thursday due to dollar demand from importers in the energy and manufacturing sectors, and low inflows, traders said.
POLITICS
Kenyan senators broke on Thursday a months-long stalemate over a new scheme for sharing of funds among county governments, paving the way for resumption of crucial services like patient admissions.
TEA
Kenya's leading tea producer is setting up a specialised factory to produce Japanese sencha green tea, it said on Thursday, in a move aimed at raising farmers' earnings from the crop.
POLITICS
Paul Rusesabagina, depicted as a hero in a Hollywood movie about Rwanda's 1994 genocide and now on trial for terrorism, was denied bail on Thursday though he had promised not to escape.
SECURITY
Armed attackers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo killed one aid worker and took two others temporarily hostage after ambushing their convoy on Wednesday, Christian charity World Vision said.
GOLD
Illicit gold traders in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo offer premium prices to subsistence miners, impeding efforts to stamp out a thriving regional black market in Congolese gold, Canadian non-governmental organisation IMPACT has found.
POLITICS
Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has picked Mohamed Hussein Roble as the new prime minister, his office said on Friday.
WEAPONS
Somali money transfer companies moved more than $3.7 million in cash between suspected weapons traffickers in recent years, including to a Yemeni under U.S. sanctions for alleged militant links, according to a report seen by Reuters.
VIOLENCE
Armed militia men killed more than 30 people in the Metakal zone of Ethiopia's Benishangul-Gumuz region, a senior opposition leader told Reuters on Thursday, the latest security headache for reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government.
ECONOMY
Gambia's economic growth rate may fall to 2% in 2020 versus a forecast 6% due to the coronavirus, President Adama Barrow said on Thursday, as he relaxed a nighttime curfew but kept other lockdown restrictions in place.
SECURITY
Islamic State has credited its West Africa affiliate for killing six French aid workers and their Nigerien guide and driver at a giraffe reserve in Niger on Aug. 9, according to a statement published by the SITE Intelligence Group on Thursday.
DOS SANTOS
An Amsterdam court on Thursday froze a stake held by Exem Energy, a company owned by the husband of Angola's former first daughter Isabel dos Santos, in a dispute over a deal struck with Angolan state oil firm Sonangol in 2006.
MASS GRAVES
Impunity for rape, murder and other abuses is still widespread in Burundi despite a change of government, a U.N. report released on Thursday said.
CORONAVIRUS
The Namibian government said on Thursday it will open up the country for international travel from Sept. 18 as it ends a six-month long state of emergency with the average number of daily coronavirus cases trending downwards.
COAST POLITICS
Former Ivory Coast Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, a leading candidate barred from standing against President Alassane Ouattara in an election next month, called on Thursday for the opposition to block Outtara's re-election by any lawful means.