African Thoughts: April 27, 2014

Nigeria:

Major losses in the likes of Unilever (-7.90%, N40), NB (-6.38%, N151) and Dangote Cement (-2.78%, N175) dragged the NSE ASI into negative territory - the Index was down by 1.48% w-o-w at 34,485.72 points. The Banking and Consumer indices closed in the red, losing 1.90% and 1.98% respectively. Losses were recorded in Access Bank (-4.97%, N6.31), GTB (-2.56%, N28.11) and Fidelity bank (-10.80%) in the banking sector whilst consumer laggards included NB (-6.38%, N151) and Guinness (1.18%, N168). GTB and Zenith Bank were the most actively traded names for the week. There were a host of companies releasing results with the likes of NB and FBNH releasing Q1 2015 results while Guinness released Q3 2015 numbers.

Kenya:

The market shed 0.6% w-o-w to reach a CY15 low at 5026.79 points. There was a slight improvement in turnover (+12% w-o-w) on the back of increased volumes in large caps Equity bank (+5.3%, KES49.50), KCB (-1.6%, KES63), Safaricom (+0.6%, KES17.30) and EABL (-4.5%, KES319). Foreigners were on the sell side of things for the second consecutive week as their participation increased to 62.1%. KCB recorded the highest net inflow ($1.6m) with a total turnover of $7.1m. Equity bank however, emerged as the most actively traded counter on the back of foreign demand. Britam retreated by 10.9% after media reports indicated that one of its directors was set to face fraud charges.

Zimbabwe:

It was an improved week from a trading point of view as a total of $6.32m exchanged hands. The most actively traded stocks were market heavies Econet (unch, 49c), Natfoods (unch, 316c) and Seedco (-1.98%, 96c), contributing 12%, 10% and 5% towards turnover respectively. Despite the decline in volumes (down 41.7%), heavy caps Delta and Innscor were foreign favorites (Steering the market higher) as the counters gained 0.95% and 3.53%, closing at 106c and 59.01c respectively. The most notable laggard was Meikles as the counter shed 5% to close at 9.50c.

Mauritius:

Another dull week as the Semdex lost 0.6% to close at 1,930.44 points. As per usual MCBG and SBM were the most actively traded names, trading a total 800k and 126.4m shares respectively. Total turnover was mainly skewed towards the banking names ($10.3m) as they closed weaker at Rs198 (-0.5%) and Rs0.88 (-3.3%) respectively.