Commodities, especially oil, silver, cocoa and soybeans recorded another strong week of gains sustaining a broad rally that has made the sector one of the top performers of this month. For instance, the U.S. oil benchmark showed weekly rise of more than 9% while Brent crude increased nearly 5.5%. This comes despite the failure last weekend of major oil exporters to agree to a deal to freeze production as accelerating US output declines and strong global demand for gasoline outweighed the disagreement. Of course, supply-demand fundamentals are specific to each commodity. However, persistent US dollar weakness and ongoing sentiment improvement prove to be supportive.

EGX30 rose 4.27% this week. German officials extended help to Egypt in case the country would seek support in mediating with the IMF or other multilateral lenders. Meanwhile the country signed business deals valued at more than €1.4 bn with French companies as President Hollande visited the country.

LuSE ASI fell 2.07%. Zambian Treasury Secretary announced that Zambia has established targets with the International Monetary Fund to prepare the way for a support programme by the fourth quarter of 2016. Zambia is facing a deficit which is qualified by some as unsustainable. Growth has been hammered by falling demand for copper, Zambia's main export product. On Tuesday, Moody’s rating agency, downgraded Zambia to B3 from B2 and downplayed the outlook to negative from stable, quoting anticipated fiscal slippage in 2016 and the prospect of further debt deterioration.

NSE ASI rose 1.01%. In Kenya financial stability is still the motto. The country’s parliament is considering a proposal to raise the amount of bank deposits guaranteed in case of a collapse from 100,000 to 2 mn shillings ($19,800) per customer. Moreover, customers of closed Chase Bank will be granted direct access to deposits worth up to 1m shillings immediately, when branches open for some business this week.

NGSE ASI increased by 0.53%. President Buhari refused to sign the 2016 budget highlighting areas of concern in the document and demanding adjustment. The grey areas identified by the President have not been made public.

BRVM Stock Exchange has been marked by the continuation of 2015 results publication. These events pushed the BRVM Composite up by 1.77% to 320.30 points compared to 314.72 points last week.