African Thoughts: January 16, 2017

Nigeria:

The ASI inched higher by a marginal 28bps last week albeit on extremely tiny volumes. 2017 seems to have started on an even worse footing than 2016. The major reason for the index rise was the Banking sector which rose by 3.27%. Leading the gainers in the Banking index were Diamond Bank (N1.11, +23.33%), followed by FCMB (N1.26, +7.69%), UBA (N4.99, +6.62%), Access (N6.69, +6.53%), Zenith Bank (N15.57, +5.42%) and Stanbic (N15.52, +3.47%). The Consumers fell by 1.82% with only 1 cross in NB on Thursday worth writing home about. There were losses posted by 7up (N111.40, -13.64%), Guinness (N73.02, -8.73%), PZ (N13.79, -4.90%), Cadbury (N9.18, -3.37%) and Nestle (N790.00, -2.35%) while NB closed up 13bps at N142.18.

Kenya:

The NASI fell by 4.5% while the NSE 25 lost 5.7% last week. With 2017 barely under way the two indices are already down 7.0% and 8.5% YTD. The bulk of these falls can be attributed to the large caps with extreme price drops in Equity Bank (-10.4%, KES 25.75), EABL (-6.1%, KES 215.00), KNCB (-4.5%, KES 26.50) and Safcom (-3.5%, KES 17.95). As one would expect, almost the entire market volumes went through in these 4 names, and in particular Safcom which accounted for over 50% of the total market turnover.

Zimbabwe:

It was unfortunately another dull week in Harare with turnover increasing +2.40% to $1.59m. Delta (31%) and Old Mutual (23%) dominated what little activity there was while the other market heavyweights were very quiet. The market continued to push full steam ahead in terms of performance with the Industrial Index gaining +0.59% (YTD +1.16%). There were some good performances in CBZ (+2.33%), Delta (+2.21%) and DZL (+0.40%). The World Bank released an economic report on Zimbabwe with a forecast GDP growth of 3.8%, while the Government’s forecast is for growth of 1.7%.

Mauritius:

It was another pedestrian week in Port Louis with turnover amounting to $2.96m as the two major banking stocks accounted for 52.6% of activity. The market managed to close in positive territory with the Semdex gaining +0.92% thanks to banking stocks as MCBG closed +1.8% higher while SBMH gained +0.9%. Hoteliers were stronger for the most part with NMH and SUN gaining +8.1% and +4.1% respectively while LUX closed -0.8% lower.