African Thoughts: August 24, 2015


Nigeria:

The ASI continues to take a pounding (-2.69%) while volumes remain generally light with the odd cross going through. The Banks (-4.46%) were weak while a late rally in Nestle (+12.59%, N965.98) helped the consumers close down a more modest 39bps. Banks were led lower by GT B (N22.00, -4.56%) and Fidelity Bank (N1.25, -6.72%). Outside of Nestle, the consumers were soft as evidenced by Cadbury (N28.56, -14.23%), Guinness (N119.00, -1.65%) and NB (N12.02, -5.44%).

Kenya:

The NASI and the NSE 20 closed down 1.6% and 2% respectively. They are now down 8.1% and 13.8% YTD respectively. For the first time in 4 weeks foreign investors turned to net sellers. Volumes were also impressive with a couple of block trades in Equity Bank (believed to be part of the Helios unbundling) dominating flows. There was also some chunky action in the likes of KNCB and BATK (+3.6%, KES829.00). The large caps were all soft as foreign selling tended to drag the stocks lower. This is evidenced by Equity Bank losing 4.8% to KES40.00, KNCB losing 3.2% to KES46.000 while EABL shed 3.9% to KES295. Safcom was the only resilient name as it closed unchanged at KES15.00.

Zimbabwe:

The Industrials fell by a further 3.93% last week and is now down 16.57% YTD. The bearish sentiment permeates throughout the entire market with the large caps being the main protagonists. Delta lost 9.4% to 84.26c while OKZim closed 6.25% at 7.5c. Seedco was also soft as it shed 4.53% to 100c. Econet and Innscor were also not immune as they both fell by 3% to 28c and 60c respectively.

Mauritius:

The Semdex slid by 30bps last week with foreign investors mostly net sellers in MCBG and SBMH. MCBG did touch a weekly high of Rs218.00 although it eventually closed at Rs215.00 (-50bps). SBMH ended the week down 2.3% at Rs0.86.

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