African Thoughts: July 18, 2014

Nigeria:

It was an extremely quiet week in Lagos with turnover falling -33.94% to $81.9m as foreigners were all but absent. The market came under pressure with the ASI falling -2.86% with both major sectors taking strain. Banks fell -4.83% with UBA (-8.86%), ETI (-6.06%) and Zenith (-4.40%) being major drags on the sector. The likes of Cadbury (-9.74%), NB (-6.98%) and Guinness (-5.50%) came under the whip as the consumer index fell -3.68%. Dangote Cement released their H1 2014 results which saw PAT fall -11.42%, management also announced that they were making a $250m investment in coal-fired power plants in its Obajana, Ibeshe and Gboko plants. The name closed the week -1.74% lower.

Kenya:

The market managed to close higher for a second week in a row with the NSE 20 Index gaining +0.8%, taking the ytd gain to +2.4%. This should however be taken with a pinch of salt as turnover fell -34.1% to $32.7m on the back of a fall in foreign participation (41.9%) as net foreign inflows fell -79..4%. KNCB managed to put on an impressive gain of +4.6% and registered the highest net inflows of $3.6m for the third week in a row while EQBNK had the highest outflow of $1m after it unveiled a new strategy which will see the bank leverage on technology to virtualize the bank. Barclays Bank Kenya released H1 2014 results with net profits increasing +13.4% to KES 4.2bn.

Zimbabwe:

The market managed to close the week higher with the Industrial Index gaining +0.22% on a shortened trading week with holidays on Monday and Tuesday. Activity decreased as a result of these holidays with turnover amounting to $6.9m with Innscor (26%), Bindura (18%) and Econet (17%) accounting for the bulk of volume. Foreign investor outflows increased +21.88% to $3.57m. The latest business forecast report by Business Monitor International cut Zimbabwe’s economic growth forecast to 1.7%, citing weak domestic demand and failure to attract foreign investment.

Mauritius:

It was a shortened trading week in Port Louis but it was still rather active as turnover amounted to $18.9m while the Semdex fell -0.4%. A few large crosses in CHSL boosted turnover as CIEL sold its 20% stake in the company (ca. 12.8m shares at 32.50) and announced its intent to focus on hospitality through SUN. MCBG came under a bit of pressure and fell -2.2% to close at 209.25 while SBM closed unchanged at 1.07.