African Thoughts: June 16, 2014

South Africa is celebrating Youth Day today. Last week saw mostly muted trading but please see below for some info on the larger markets in the African space.

Zimbabwe:

The Industrials index increased by 1.21% last week as demand coupled with limited supply pushes prices higher. Monday saw a soft start followed by 4 successive positive sessions as YTD losses for the index are now -10.58%. Volumes were also much improved mostly thanks to some crosses in CBZ, OKZ, Pearl and Econet. Gains were noted in large caps such as Econet (+4.35%, 72c), Innscor (+2.73%) and NatFoods (+2.38%) while Delta ended the week unchanged at 117c.

Nigeria:

The NSE ASI closed down by the slimmest of margins last week as it shed just 3bps although volumes were much quieter than it has been in recent weeks. In fact, the biggest volumes came in the normally illiquid Transcor which saw a chunky cross in the name of over $30m. The banking sector rose by 2.44% for the week with solid gains in the likes of UBA (+7.55%, N8.12) and GTB (+4.2%, N31.26) while there was also a solid gain in PZ (+6.94%, N38.50). The consumer index fell by 62bps with profit takers finally coming to play in NB (-2.11%, N174.64). In general though, market activity was very quiet.

Kenya:

The constituents of the NSE 20 changed last week with Britam, Centum and CFC Stanbic coming in to replace Kakuzi, Uchumi and Mumias. The NSE 20 fell by 20bps for the week with turnover also reduced. As always, the bulk of the trading activity focused on the 4 main stocks, Equity Bank, KNCB, Safcom and EABL. All these names ended the week in the green with EABL the leading light as the brewer gained 2.5% to KES 288. Safcom rose by 80bps to KES 12.90 while in the banks, Equity Bank increased by 2.4% to KES 42.75 and KNCB rose by 1.5% to KES 50.00. There was also a decent cross in BRIT as the name gained 2.6% to KES 18.00.

Mauritius:

There was a massive cross in MCBG on Friday helping the bourse record its higher trading volumes in more than 3.5 years. There was also a new stock listed mid week in the form of LottoTech. Foreign buying remains strong in the banks although MCBG still closed marginally soft at Rs219 while SBM ended the week unchanged at Rs1.05. In the hotels we saw a gain for Lux Island Resorts (+1.2%, Rs43.60) while there were losses for NMH (-30bps, Rs84.25) and Sun Resorts (-30bps, Rs40.40).