African Thoughts: July 11, 2014

All eyes were on the US-Africa summit in Washington D.C but unfortunately the interest didn’t spill over into the African markets in what was mostly a very dull week. In fact, the bulk of the action was a couple of foreign bookovers late in the week.

Nigeria:

The Nigerian ASI gained 1.58% last week. The banks rose by a mere 13bps with most of the action focused on the Tier 1 names. The biggest gainers were ETI (+8.65%, N18.33) and FBNH (+7.08%, N15.42). In the consumers there was weakness as the sector fell by 51bps despite gains in Flourmills (+2.16%, N79.35), Guinness (+3.09%, N200) and NB (+2.17%, N184.15). The week was mostly dull although on Friday there were a number of foreign bookovers that went through on the open that distorted real trading volumes.

Kenya:

The Nairobi bourse ground higher throughout the week as limited supply pushed most names higher with mostly foreign demand in names like EABL, Safcom and KNCB. KNCB did actually touch a 52 week high of KES60 before selling off into Friday and closing at KES54 (-90bps). This was mostly due to the bank’s ESOP scheme which brought some local selling to the market later in the week. Equity Bank inched higher before settling up 50bps at KES46 while EABL was very strong throughout the week but sold off into the close after announcing FY results on Friday morning (-70bps, KES297). Safcom outperformed as foreign demand pushed the name higher by 2.8% to KES12.80.

Zimbabwe:

The Industrials just continue to inch higher as volumes remain extremely low in Harare. The Index is now -3.57% YTD but action is very quiet with the exception of a couple of foreign bookovers on Friday. Normal trading remains dead but demand for the large caps continue to push these prices higher. There were gains in the likes of Seedco (+13%, 90c), Delta (+3%, 130c), Econet (+2%, 73.5c) and Innscor (+5%, 80c) albeit on small volumes.

Mauritius:

The Semdex rose by 40bps last week while the Sem-7 ended the week unchanged. The banking sector was generally weak as we saw MCBG slip by 30bps to Rs214 while Bramer Banking fell by 2.3% to Rs6.80. SBM ended the week unchanged at Rs1.07. In the hotels we saw NMH drop by 60bps to Rs87 while Lux (+1.3%, Rs48.10) and Sun (+5.2%, Rs43.25) both outperformed. Air Mauritius gained 3.3% to Rs17.25 while Lottotech rose by 3.4% to Rs12.10.