African Thoughts: July 17, 2017


Nigeria:

The ASI rose by 2.47% last week (up 23.77% YTD) although volumes were rather muted across the board. Both Banks (+6.10%) and Consumers (+71bps) ended the week in the green. In the Banks, Access (N9.90, +6.45%) led the gainers chart supported by Guaranty (N36.60, +5.11%), Zenith Bank (N21.93, +4.98%), Diamond Bank (N1.28, +3.23%) and UBA (N9.00, +2.74%). The Consumers sector was extremely quiet with no names really outperforming.

Kenya:

The NSE 20 climbed by 1.1% while the NASI rose by a more subdued 60bps last week with turnover a solid $61m for the week. However, most of this volume can be attributed to some large (local-local) crossing in Britam which was not normal trading. Normal trading was dominated by the usual suspects with Safcom (unch, KES23.00) leading the way. There was also some decent trading in the likes of EqBnk (+2.01%, KES38.00), Co-Op Bank (unch, KES14.00) and EABL (-0.80%, KES249.00).

Zimbabwe:

The recent rally is definitely showing signs that it is coming to an end. That said, the Industrials still gained 24bps and the index is now up 37.28% YTD. Among the larger cap names, there were gains in names such as Econet (+2.22%, 36.80c), OK Zim (+3.37%, 9.82c) and Innscor (+35bps, 72.25c) while Seedco (-7.59%, 134c) had a rather rough week. Market activity still remains heavily dominated by local investors.

Mauritius:

The Semdex rose by a further 1.1% last week despite some large caps like MCBG, ROGE and MEDL going ex-div. MCBG was particularly impressive, shrugging off the technical lower price and still climbing 3.9% to Rs276.00 while SBMH followed suit and closed up 4.1% at Rs7.58 with foreign buying notable in both stocks.

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