African Thoughts: July 14, 2014

Another rather dull week in the African space as general trading remains muted. Market sessions are incredibly dull with only the odd cross peppering the market. In economic news, the Bank of Ghana increased the benchmark interest rate to 19%. Below is a summary of the larger markets.

Zimbabwe:

The Industrials fell by 35bps last week. As with the rest of the African markets it was a dull week with just a couple of chunky trades in OKZim spicing up proceedings. Among the heavyweights, Delta had a quiet week and fell by 3.85% to 125c while Econet gained an impressive 5.71% to 74c. CBZ fell by 7.69% to 12c after reports that Zimbabwean non-performing loans continue to worsen while Seedco gained 5.73% to 74.01c.

Nigeria:

The NSE ASI lost 46bps for the week under review. Among the gainers we saw impressive performances from Forte Oil (+16.98%, N234.06), Ashaka Cement (+12.24%, N32.55) and Transcor (+10.69%, N5.80). General trading activity was very muted with the odd cross going through in the likes of FBNH, Oando and Zenith Bank. The major sectors (banks and consumers) were both non-committal and pretty much hugged their opening prices for the week.

Kenya:

The NSE 20 gained 30bps for the week while the broader NASI fell by 60bps. Market activity was quiet despite a slight pick-up in foreign participation. As usual the big 4 stocks dominated market activity. The most active name was Safcom which fell by 2.3% to KES 12.40 while EABL gained a small amount to KES 301.00. In the banks, Equity Bank fell by 4.4% to KES 43.50 while KNCB closed up marginally in the green at KES 51.00.

Mauritius:

The Port Louis bourse witnessed general softness last week with both the Semdex and the Sem-7 falling in a generally quiet week. In the banks we saw SBM and Bramer Banking close unchanged while MCBG slipped by 60bps to Rs213.25. MCBG goes ex-div today at Rs210.00. The hotels had a mixed week with NMH falling by 2.9% to Rs83.50 while Lux gained 1.4% to Rs45.75 and Sun closed unchanged.

contacts
  • Bermuda +1 441 278 7620
  • South Africa +27 11 268 5833
Quick links