The following company
announcements, scheduled economic indicators, debt and currency
market moves and political events may affect African markets on
Wednesday.
    - - - - -
 EVENTS
 * KENYA - Central bank auctions 182-day and 364-day T-bills.
 * GHANA - Statistics office due to release consumer inflation
 data for October.
 * NAMIBIA - Statistics office may release consumer inflation
 data for October.   
 
 GLOBAL MARKETS
 Asian share markets drifted lower on Wednesday as anxiety
 mounted ahead of another batch of Chinese data while strength
 in the U.S. dollar kept the screws on global commodity prices.
            
 
 WORLD OIL PRICES
 U.S. crude oil prices        fell in Asian trading on Wednesday
 after industry data showed an increase in U.S. stockpiles,
 while fears that Japan's economy may have fallen into recession
 added to demand woes.      
 
 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
 Platinum miner Lonmin          led South African stocks sharply
 lower on Tuesday after the company gave a large discount on its
 rights issue, while the rand          edged up slightly on
 strong manufacturing data.       
 
 SOUTH AFRICA DROUGHT
 The sugar-growing South African province of KwaZulu Natal is
 the driest it has been in over a century, according to data
 provided on Tuesday by the South African Weather Service,
 underscoring the scale of a drought scorching Africa's most
 advanced economy.                     
 
 KENYA MARKETS
 Kenya's shilling        closed flat on Tuesday after the
 central bank sold dollars to support the local currency for the
 second day in a row.       
 
 KENYA CORRUPTION
 Kenya's tax authority has launched a campaign to encourage
 people to report evasion and to crack down on staff misconduct,
 it said on Tuesday, after media allegations of corruption.
                
 
 NIGERIA BONDS
 Nigeria bond yields fell sharply on Tuesday due to a liquidity
 surge on the money market, traders said, adding that the
 central bank was loosening monetary policy to try to spur
 credit growth.                
 
 ZAMBIAN KWACHA
 Zambia's kwacha        fell more than 5 percent on Tuesday to a
 new record low while its dollar bonds fell across the curve as
 copper prices edged towards a six-year low on concerns about
 flagging demand in top consumer China.                   
 
 ZAMBIA-TANZANIA RAILWAY
 China has lent Zambia and Tanzania $22.4 million to buy
 locomotives and rolling stock for a railway that carries copper
 to Tanzania's Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam, a spokesman
 for the railway said on Tuesday.                
 
 BURUNDI VIOLENCE
 Burundi's political violence threatens to spiral into an ethnic
 or regional conflict but the United Nations is less equipped to
 deal with it than it was in Rwanda before the genocide in 1994,
 a U.N. human rights official said on Tuesday.                
 
 CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC    
 France will resume withdrawing its troops from Central African
 Republic following elections intended to restore democratic
 rule following more than two years of inter-religious violence,
 French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Tuesday.