African Thoughts: February 23, 2014


The week was much the same as previous weeks as general trading remained muted whilst the odd cross boosted volumes. Some buying did return, more details below.

Nigeria:

The ASI gained 6.52% last week on the back of gains in banks (+11.33%) and consumers (+4.21%). Top gainers in the week included GT Bank (N21.78, +28.12%), Okomu Oil (N35.58, +21.47%) and FBNH (N7.45, +16.95%). The Banks ended the week up 11.33% with major gains on the likes of GT Bank (N21.78, +28.12%) and UBA (N3.41, +13.67%) . The Consumers were also up during the week by 4.21% supported by gains on Nascon (N6.85, +14.17%), Nestle (N820.00, +9.88%), Flour Mills (N31.48, +8.55%) and Guinness (N123.28, +8.14%). Some important news out was the announcement by the CBN that they were to close the RDSA Forex window on Wednesday.

Kenya:

Both the NSE 20 and the NASI continues to grind higher as they both gained 2.4% for the week. Foreign investors remained net buyers for the 3rd consecutive week although foreign participation remains on the low side. The most active stock for the week was EABL as we saw the brewer gain 3.9% to KES345.00. The major banks were both very active with KNCB gaining 80bps to KES59.50 and Equity Bank rising by 2.8% to KES54.50. The normally less liquid name Centum saw some decent crossing (mix of local and foreign) as the insurer slipped by 80bps to KES62.00. Safcom was strong and rose by 3.4% to KES15.35.

Zimbabwe:

Interest returned to the Harare bourse with foreign participation returning in an impressive fashion. The Industrials did slip by 14bps for the week (+1.96% YTD). OKZim fell by 5.71% to 13.2c and NatFoods fell to 310c (-3.13%). This was partially offset by small gains in Delta (+43bps, 115.5c) and Econet (+18bps, 55c) while Innscor rose by 1.36% to 59.8c. Seedco was also a big gainer as it gained 2.94% to 105c. Of note were a couple of chunky crosses in Delta and Econet (mostly foreign).

Mauritius:

The Port Louis market was rather quiet as it took 2 days off for public holidays. MCBG rebounded to a 2 month high of Rs203 (+2.8%) while SBMH closed unchanged at Rs1.01. NMHL rose by 4.6% (Rs68) while Sun Resorts gained 4.3% to Rs36.

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