NAIROBI, April 2 (Reuters) – The following company announcements, scheduled economic indicators, debt and currency market moves and political events may affect African markets on Friday. – – – – – GLOBAL MARKETS Asian markets were set to open higher on Friday in a holiday-lightened trading session, riding a surge of strong factory data and falling bold yields that pushed U.S. and European benchmark stock indexes to record highs. WORLD OIL PRICES Oil prices settled up more than $2 Thursday despite news that OPEC+ reached a deal to gradually ease production cuts from May. EMERGING MARKETS For the top emerging markets news, double click on AFRICA STOCKS For the latest news on African stocks, click on SOUTH AFRICA MARKETS South Africa’s rand extended gains against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, as positive manufacturing activity and new vehicle sales data pointed to a recovery in the economy. AFRICA CURRENCIES Kenya’s shilling is expected to gain ground against the dollar next week while the Zambian kwacha could weaken, traders said. KENYA MARKETS Kenya’s shilling was stable on Thursday, and was expected to gain ground, helped muted importer demand, remittance inflows and commercial banks shedding their long dollar positions, traders said. SOUTH SUDAN ECONOMY South Sudan’s central bank ordered banks on Thursday to start using one foreign exchange rate in order to reduce market distortions, seeking to stabilise an economy reeling from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and years of war. MOZAMBIQUE BREWERY Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABinBEV), the world’s largest beer producer, has opened a new $180 million brewery in Mozambique, the firm said on Thursday. NAMIBIA ECONOMY Namibia will for the first time receive $271 million from the International Monetary Fund to address the country’s deteriorating fiscal position which has been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, its finance ministry said on Thursday. For the latest precious metals report click on For the latest base metals report click on For the latest crude oil report click on

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions – https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html