African Thoughts: February 09, 2014

Nigeria:

It was a better week in terms of activity last week in Lagos as turnover increased +15.56% to $115.07m thanks to crosses in the likes of GTB and NB. The market closed the week lower with the ASI falling -0.84% thanks to banking stocks with the sector falling -2.96% as Diamond Bank (-10.50%), Zenith (-8.51%) and Fidelity (-6.72%) dragged the sector lower. Consumers also closed lower with the Index falling -0.48% thanks to losses in Nestle (-3.60%) and NB (-1.37%). Oando reduced the price of its rights issue from N22.00 to N16.50, while it increased the number of shares to 2.956bn. Unfortunately it was a rather quiet week on the news front.

Kenya:

Things started off rather slowly in Nairobi last week but then picked up towards the end of the week as we saw a return of foreign interest (47.2% of total activity) as total turnover increased 38.7% to $36.3m for the week. The market however closed lower with the NSE 20 Index falling -0.1%. Equity Bank (-1.8%) came under a bit of pressure, yet saw the highest foreign inflows of $1.3m while Safcom saw the highest outflows of $1.6m. Mumias Sugar had a good week and managed to gain +10.6% on news that the company was set to receive a government bailout. Market heavyweights Kenya Commercial Bank and East African Breweries came under a bit of pressure last week and fell -1.7% and -0.6% respectively.

Zimbabwe:

It was an absolutely dismal week in Harare with turnover slumping -69.37% to its lowest level ($1.74m for the week) since dollarization, with the low point coming in on Friday ($90k). The market was also under pressure from a performance point of view with the Industrial Index falling -0.94% as Econet (-16.67%) and Seedco (-2.06%) dragged the market lower. There was a small bit of activity (but absolutely nothing to write home about) in Delta, Innscor and Econet.

Mauritius:

The market closed the week lower in Port Louis with the Semdex falling -0.11% taking the YTD loss to -2.6% as foreigners continue to be net sellers ($910k). Hotel stocks dragged the market lower with NMH falling -4.00 while LUX fell -3.93%. Banking stocks however managed to close higher with SBMH and MCBG gaining +0.99% and +0.25% respectively. On a positive note, it was a rather solid week from an activity point of view as turnover amounted to $9.4m thanks largely to MCBG, SBMH and PBL.