African Thoughts: June 22, 2015

Nigeria:

The week saw the NSE shed 1.08% to close on 33,257.90 points on the back of losses in the likes of Dangote Cement (N175.00, -1.12%), Guinness (N165.00,-1.79%) and NB (N148.02, -1.48%). Overall market activity was lackluster throughout the week barring some crosses in the likes of Guinness, ETI and Seplat. The NSE Banking index gave up 0.73% due to losses in UBA (N5.16,-0.19%) and Zenith Bank (N19.47, -2.27%. Also in the red was the NSE consumer index which shed 1.29% during the week, due to trades in the likes of Dangote Flour (N3.87, -7.86%), Guinness (N165.00, - 1.79%) and NB (N148.02, -1.48%). Guinness and Zenith Bank were the most actively traded stocks during the week as the counters contributed $19.9m and $17.0m respectively.

Kenya:

The NSE 20 index recouped its previous week's losses to close up 0.3% w-o-w despite other market indicators closing off in the red. Market activity decreased by 11.15% whilst turnover increased by 20% w-o-w to $37.1m due to trades in the likes of BAT and Equity Bank. Foreigners were skewed towards the sell side of things this week as their participation declined to 45% versus 60.1% recorded in the previous week. Top movers included Equity Bank and Safaricom as the latter was the top seller for the ninth consecutive week - $4.2m net outflow. Joining the leaders was BAT after an excise duty on cigarettes was increased by a lower percentage than expected. Centum released good FY-15 results which saw a 142.2% increase in investment income and a 160% increase in PAT.

Zimbabwe:

Despite depressed volumes in the market the Industrial index inched 0.17% higher to close at 152.90 points. Weekly turnover stood at $3.56m due to trades in Econet (unch), Delta (+0.96%) and Innscor (-2.87%), contributing 42.39%, 16.77% and 12.45% respectively. Top gainers included Masimba (+66.67%), ZBFH (+40.00%) and Proplastics (+33.33%).

Mauritius:

Indices closed the week in the green as overall turnover amounted to $8.6m buoyed by trades in the likes of MCBG, SUN and SBMH. The latter traded at Rs0.93 for the week after a total of 45.8m shares were exchanged in the name. Persistent selling pressure caused the name to shed 1.1% w-o-w. MCBG increased by 3.8% to reach a high of Rs216.50 (YTD +9.3%) on the back of 540.6k shares traded.