It was a slightly better week in terms of activity, but still nothing to write home about, as turnover increased $18.35% to $39.93m. A late cross in UBN ($8.4m) on Friday was the main driver behind the increase in activity while the big names were very quiet. It was a very good week in terms of performance with the ASI gaining +3.44%, trimming the YTD loss to -6.76%. Banking stocks were on the charge last week with the sector gaining +6.28% thanks to ETI (+21.13%), GTB (+9.25%) and UBA (+2.51%). Consumers closed the week lower with the sector falling -1.68%, thanks to some weakness in Unilever (-12.07%), Cadbury (-4.04%0 and NB (-2.07%). On the economic front, inflation for November increased +18.5%.
The market closed the week lower for the third week in a row with the NSE 20 Index falling -1.7% (-23.2% YTD) on the back of local selling. It was interesting to note that foreigners were net buyers to the tune of $1.99m. It was an extremely dull week from an activity point of view with turnover falling -14.8% to a rather dire $15.25m. Safcom (-1.3%), EQBNK (unch) and EABL (-0.4%) were the only names worth mentioning from an activity point of view as the three names combined accounted for 69.6% of turnover. EQBNK ($762k) saw the highest net foreign inflows while EABL ($141k) saw the highest net foreign outflows.
There was finally some profit taking in Harare with the Industrial Index falling -1.00% (+28.77% YTD). Weakness in heavyweight stocks Econet (-10.12%), Innscor (-3.20%) and Delta (-2.09%) were drags on the market. Things also slowed down on the activity front with turnover falling -49.52% to $4.61m with action in CBZ (22%), Econet (20%), Delta (19%) and Seedco (18%) driving proceedings. Risk aversion surrounding the bond notes continues to deter foreign investors and it will be interesting to see what 2017 brings.
The market managed to close the week slightly higher in Port Louis with the Semdex gaining +0.34%, putting the market in positive territory for the year (+0.09%). It was a very quiet week from an activity point of view with turnover amounting to $3.89m as MCBG and NMH dominated what little activity there was. Banking stocks closed the week lower with MCBG falling -0.4% while SBMH fell -1.2%. Hoteliers had a rather good week with NMH gaining +3.0% while SUN and LUX gained +0.6% and 0.4% respectively.