African Thoughts: February 16, 2014

Nigeria:

Every day feels like groundhog day in Lagos as volumes remain light (sprinkled with the odd cross) while each day we see the index fall by another 1-2%. The ASI lost 8% last week led lower by banks (-94%) and Consumers (-8.00%). Top gainers in the week included Seplat (N385.00, +15.30%), Cadbury (N42.98, +10.21%) and Okomu Oil (N29.29, +9.95%). The Banks were dragged lower thanks to major losses in the likes of GT Bank (N17.00, -19.05%), UBA (N3.00, -12.28%) and Access Bank (N5.32, -11.33%). The Consumers were also down on the back of losses on the likes of Nascon (N6.00, -20.53%),Flour Mills (N29.00, -15.20%), and Guinness (N114.00, -11.62%).

Kenya:

With Nigeria out of favour we saw investors looking towards the Nairobi bourse despite concerns and uncertainty over the new CGT rules. The NASI and NSE 20 both closed the week at 2015 highs while turnover was also much improved thanks to trading on the large caps. The most active name was KNCB which fell by 80bps to KES59.00 while Equity Bank closed the week unchanged at KES53.00. The best performer among the blue chips was EABL which gained 6.8% to KES332.00. The brewer released 2015 H1 numbers during the week which were taken as better than expected. Safcom gained 2.1% to KES14.85.

Zimbabwe:

The Industrials fell by 60bps last week although YTD the index is still up 3.42%. last week also saw some results being announced but weakening demand for the Industrials was evident. Activity was also much reduced as foreign participation remains on the low side despite a chunky 24m shares cross in Mash. There was weakness in the likes of Delta (-86bps, 115c) and Natfoods (-5.88%, 320c).

Mauritius:

Results season underway in Port Louis. In the banks we saw both MCBG and SBMH close unchanged at Rs197.50 and Rs1.01 respectively. In the travel and leisure sector the only gainer was Lux which closed higher by 7.8% at Rs55 while NMHL fell by 4.4% to Rs65 and Sun fell by 5.5% to Rs34.50.

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