African Thoughts: April 11, 2016


Nigeria:

The ASI fell by 70bps last week on yet another woefully dull week in Lagos. Interest in the market seems to be getting smaller and smaller and this lack of interest manifested in low volumes and soft performance in both the banks (-29bps) and consumers (-14bps). Major losses were recorded in Ashaka Cement (N19.56, -14.21%) and Dangsugar (N5.35, -10.83%) while the banks were driven by losses in Unity Bank (N0.66, -8.33%), Stanbic (N13.19, -7.44%) and Zenith Bank (N10.96, -0.18%). The Consumers fell thanks to Dangsugar (N5.35, -10.83%), UACN (N19.40, -5.27%), 7up (N147.00, -4.55%) and Nestle (N675.00, -3.57%) but these losses were partially offset by gains in Flourmills (N20.5, +4.86%) and NB (N109.90, +3.30%).

Kenya:

The NSE 20 gained a marginal 10bps last week while there still seems like there is no real direction in the market. Yet again Safcom was the most active stock as the telco closed at KES16.75 (-60bps). The banks followed each other by closing up 60bps, Equity Bank at KES40.25 and KNCB at KES42.00. EABL (-1.1%, KES280) was mostly quiet although thanks to a couple of crosses we did see some action in the brewer. There was 1 large cross in BATK (-5.8%, KES800.00).

Zimbabwe:

The Industrials ticked higher by 12bps last week although the market is still down 14.74% YTD. Volumes remain embarrassingly low although its pleasing that the freefall that we witnessed at the start of the year seems to have stopped for the time being. There wasn't much that was interesting to write home about with the only large cap moving being Econet which gained 2% to 25.5c albeit on scraps.

Mauritius:

It was a short week in Port Louis due to another public holiday on Friday. The market had a very quiet week with general softness as both the Semdex and the Sem-10 fell by 20bps. The banks had a mixed week though as MCBG gained 1% to Rs208.50 while SBMH fell by 3% to Rs0.65. Early today we saw the Tourist Arrivals announced which showed a 12.5% rise for Q1 2016 over Q1 from 2015.

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