Foreign exchange market

The Dollar found support after disappointing economic data from the Eurozone put pressure on the Euro. USD/JPY is higher after dovish comments from the BOJ which weakened the yen. EUR/USD fell slightly on weaker than expected economic data in the Eurozone. USD/JPY rallied slightly as the yen weakened following unfavorable comments from the Bank of Japan. In the long term, inflation weighs on the value of a currency, but traders bet on the fact that the Fed would be forced to tighten its monetary policy, which would make the dollar more attractive.

Cryptocurrency

On the cryptocurrency side, the market is worried about the growing efforts of regulators to control the system. China has chosen technology groups and "fintechs" more than banks to carry out its yuan 2.0 project and assert its world leadership in digital currencies. Its technological leadership risks breaking the global duopoly of the dollar and the euro. The market leader approached the symbolic threshold of 30,000 dollars, not crossed since January. The price of bitcoin fell sharply dragging other cryptocurrencies in its wake.

Money Market

The Public Treasury of the State of Côte d'Ivoire raised on June 8, 2021, an amount of 66 billion FCFA (107.250 million euros) following its simultaneous issue of recovery bonds and bonds ( ORD) of the Treasury with maturities of 91 days, 5 years and 10 years. Also, Benin will issue OAT Obligations Assimilables du Trésor (OAT) on June 17, which will mature in 3 years, i.e. on June 18, 2024. The amount put up for auction is 60 billion CFA francs.

Stock market

At the Regional Stock Exchange (BRVM), the market capitalization of the equity market recorded an increase of 45.862 billion FCFA at the end of the last trading session. That of the bond market left its stationary situation, increasing from 5.207 billion FCFA to 6529.142 billion FCFA. The total value of transactions is again on the rise, standing at 1.603 billion FCFA against 252.425 million FCFA. The Weekly Market Review published by the Dakar-based management and intermediation company (SGI) Impaxis Securities indicates that 21 securities listed in the Shares compartment of the Regional Stock Exchange (BRVM) recorded an increase in their price. . On the other hand, the review reports that 06 titles remained unchanged where 19 titles saw their prices fall.

Raw materials

Oil tempers and raises questions about Chinese demand. Oil prices fell in the face of the decline in Chinese imports of crude weighing more than the difficulties encountered in the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear.

Provisional Ivorian port statistics show a 4.5% drop in Ivorian cocoa exports between the beginning of October and the end of April. Small performance of natural rubber with a 9% drop in exports over the same period from January to April, to 351,719 t. Coffee exports (Robusta), for their part, fell by 58% over the period from January to the end of April, to 9,132 t. however, cotton enjoyed new satisfaction with shipments reaching 114,558 t between January and the end of April, up by 8.3%.

The first virtual world rubber summit opened in Abidjan on June 08, 2021 in the presence of Prime Minister Jerome Patrick Achi, high patron of the ceremony. It was a major and concerted forum for discussions on strategic issues in the rubber economy, both natural and synthetic.

Companies

In Côte d'Ivoire, Nestlé will distribute dividends to its shareholders at the rate of FCFA 363.665 (€ 0.55) net per share. This is a first for the subsidiary of the Swiss group, for a decade. The company's net profit jumped by 893%, to FCFA 4.02 billion (€6.1 million) against FCFA 405.5 million (€618,000) at the start of 2020. Its turnover increased, meanwhile. , by 16% to FCFA 48 billion (€ 73.1 million).

Shanghai hosted the Huawei Intelligent Finance Summit 2021 this week under the theme "Accelerating Financial Digitalization, Creating New Value Together". On the occasion, Huawei announced three strategic initiatives to make financial institutions better businesses based on the digital ecosystem. First, encourage institutions to fully embrace innovative, cloud-native technologies that provide optimal infrastructure to accelerate digital and intelligent convergence and create an agile platform. Second, to strengthen digitalization in all industry scenarios to improve safe and secure data transfer, unlock the potential value of big data, and strengthen financial inclusion. Finally, aggregate different SaaS products to build an open ecosystem for all scenarios and enable scenario-based financial services.

Bank and insurance

Central banks announced on Thursday that the Swiss National Bank and the Banque de France will test the first cross-border payments in digital currency. An initiative that will be a first for two of the world's main currencies. The Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse and the French company Natixis are participating in the project, as well as the Swiss stock exchange operator SIX Digital Exchange, the fintech company R3 and the innovation center of the Bank for International Settlements.

The World Bank is granting $134 million in financing to Senegal, one of the West African countries most affected by Covid-19, with 41,581 confirmed cases. The funds, half of which are donated by the International Development Association (IDA), are intended to facilitate the purchase and deployment of vaccines against the coronavirus, benefiting 35% of the Senegalese population, while 20% additional ones will benefit from the market guarantee facility for Covid-19 vaccines (AMC COVAX), which subsidizes the costs of deploying vaccines.

Like all the subsidiaries of the Saham group, the insurance company Saham Senegal now becomes Sanlam. This rebranding is the logical continuation of the acquisition by Sanlam Group of the entire capital of Saham Finances, finalized in October 2018.

Atlantique Assurance Vie, the subsidiary of the Moroccan group BCP and the Lataha de Korhogo school group have signed a partnership agreement whose aim is to improve the living environment of the students of this locality in the north of the Côte d 'Ivory. At the end of the works, 1,000 students will benefit from renovated and secure sanitary facilities, including a block of 12 latrines, 4 sinks and 8 hand washing points, which will reduce the risk of spreading contagious water-related diseases. and sanitation.

Financial crimes

The former director general of the Equatorial Mining Company (SEM) and previously of the Stabilization and Equalization Fund (Caistab) appeared this week in the context of the "Scorpion" anti-corruption operation for which several senior officials of the public administration are currently in pre-trial detention in the central prison of Libreville. Ismael Ondias was sentenced to 10 years suspended prison sentence and to pay a fine of 100 million FCFA.

The delay of the draft law on the seizure of profits from risky criminals could cost Luxembourg dearly, which will have to explain to the European Court of Justice why it has still not transposed into its law the regulation concerning the freezing and confiscation of proceeds of the crime. The executive body of the European Union (EU) has filed an appeal against the Grand Duchy before the European courts.

The managing director of the Societe Generale Guinea bank is being sued by Maïmouna Soumah, a Guinean resident in England, for “misappropriation of seized property”. The complainant is claiming nearly 600 million Guinean francs from the boss of the private financial institution.

Regional growth

The President of the Commission of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), Abdoulaye Diop was on a working visit to Benin. Accompanied by a delegation from the commission, he was received in audience by President Patrice Talon on Thursday. The purpose of his visit is to thank the President after his appointment as head of the Commission for this mark of confidence and to renew the Commission's availability to take charge of the orientations and opinions of the Heads of State. Security issues and post-Covid-19 economic recovery in WAEMU were among the topics of discussion.

Established on June 9, 1959, the West African Customs Union responds above all to the integration needs of entities preparing to leave French supervision and therefore French West Africa (AOF). It initially brought together six West African countries, namely Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal. Created by the Paris Convention, the Union has set itself, among other objectives, the perpetuation of a single customs territory shared in common by the member countries.

During an exchange meeting between the Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (ZLECAf), Wamkele Mene and the President of Faso, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, it emerged that the experts are thinking about setting up a compensation fund to support trade. Discussions between Wamkele Mene and President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré focused on various topics such as industrialization in Africa and particularly in Burkina Faso.

At the end of his mission at the head of the Regional Council for Public Savings and Financial Markets of the West African Monetary Union, CREPMF, Mamadou Ndiaye bid farewell to the Ivorian Head of State and took the opportunity to the projects carried out as well as the reforms undertaken during his mandate. Under the mandate of Mamadou Ndiaye, the Crepmf was marked, among other things, by the effectiveness since January 2018 of the resident presidency of the Crepmf with a view to enabling the president to drive the reform program and ensure optimal management. of Crepmf. In addition, the Regional Council set up two advisory bodies (Audit Committee, Scientific Committee) respectively in 2018 and 2019 to improve the efficiency of its decision-making process on financial and economic matters. With regard to completed projects, they relate to the attractiveness and security of the market. It also concerns the effectiveness of the system for hearing and sanctioning authorized market players, the revision of the Public Service Concessions granted to the Central Structures as well as the adoption of ten (10) Instructions by the Regional Council and the publication of four (4) Circulars by the General Secretariat.