African Thoughts: December 09, 2013

A generally dull week took place in the African universe with mild profit taking going on in the various markets, albeit on low volumes as foreign investors gear down into the festive season.

A brief summary for the more core markets follows.

Zimbabwe:

The Industrials Index fell by 88bps for last week as some of the large caps lost ground. Losses were recorded in Hippo (-5%, 100c), Innscor (-4%, 77c) and Seedco (-2%, 88c) while OK Zim rose by 10% to 22c. Market heavyweight Econet ended the week at 63c with some chunky trading at that level. In general, foreign activity remains lower than normal and is pretty evenly distributed between the buy and the sell side.

Nigeria:

A marginally soft week as profit takers in a number of the large caps weighed on the ASI. NB fell by 3.81% and nestle fell by 5.96% to N162 and N1175 respectively. The Tier 1 banks were mostly unchanged for the week on mostly low volumes. Transcorp continues to swing wildly on big volumes and ended the week up 17.42% and was also the highest traded stock. Oando also swings like crazy and closed the week up 12.38% at N15.80. As has been the case in recent weeks, block trades dominate the landscape.

Egypt:

A positive week in Cairo as the EGX30 ended the week up 2.5%. Volumes were weak relative to recent market turnovers as the bulk of the volumes were local retail. The rally was lead mainly by local investors who targeted names such as HRHO, TNGH and ORWE. COMI witnessed notable buying flow after the 50% stock dividend announcement as the name managed to end the week up 6.1% on strong volumes. The real estate sector managed to gain interest after PHDC chairman Yassin Mansour returned to Egypt after leaving the country after the January 25 Revolution - this created much needed confidence in the sector.

Kenya:

The same theme for the other markets reverberated on the Nairobi bourse as the NSE 20 lost 2.4% as profit takers pushed the market lower on generally quiet volumes. Foreign investors were largely absent as local participants dominated activity. Foreign investors were net sellers for the second consecutive weeks as profits were booked on some large cap names. Safcom once again saw the lion’s share of market activity and shed 4.2% to KES 10.35. The other large caps also lost ground as we saw Equity Bank (-5.6%, KES 33.50), KNCB (-6.3%, KES 45) and EABL (-7.4%, KES 301) all losing ground.

Mauritius:

The Semdex gained 30bps last week on the back of strength in the banks, notably SBM (+1%, Rs1.05) and MCB (+70bps, Rs205.25) as well as outperformance in the hotels – Lux gained 3.4% to Rs37.75 and Sun gained 4.1% to Rs36.50.

Francophone Region:

The BRVM indices gained for the week and the BRVM10 is now at an impressive +28.75% for the YTD while the BRVM Comp index is up 32.51% for the YTD. Sonatel gained 26bps for the week.