African Thoughts: June 26, 2017

Dear all

Please note that most African markets are closed today for the Eid-Ul-Fitr celebrations.

Nigeria:

The Nigeria bourse finally relented on its bull run with the ASI falling by 4.99% for the week. Both Banks (-6.99%) and Consumers (-3.95%) had tough weeks. The biggest banking losers included Diamond Bank (N1.13, -15.04%), FBNH (N5.89, -14.51%), FCMB (N1.19, -12.50%), Access (N8.86, -11.40%), Zenith Bank (N20.33, -11.18%), ETI (N13.27, -7.40%), UBA (N8.32, -4.15%) and Guaranty (N34.50, -3.44%). Market turnover remains at elevated levels (certainly compared to recent months). Please note that Monday and Tuesday are closed due to Id-El Fitr holidays.

Kenya:

We also saw a vibrant market in Kenya with some decent trading activity going through, and this time it wasn’t all just in Safcom. Safcom was still the most active stock and closed down 1.06% at KES23.25. EABL also witnessed some chunky trading and rose by 3.13% to KES264.00. The banks had a mixed week – Equity Bank shed 3.85% to KES37.50 while KNCB rose by 2.03% to KES37.75.

Zimbabwe:

In Zimbabwe, the incredible rally in the Industrials index has finally started to run out of steam. Although the index still closed the week in the green (+57bps) it dripped lower steadily later in the week with volumes also starting to taper off. Econet fell off by 5.5% to 34.00c while gains were recorded in the more “mid-tier” names, such as Seedco (+10.76%), Lafarge (+12.5%) and OKZim (+13.03%).

Mauritius:

The Semdex rose by 1.5% and most of this was thanks to some more significant gains in MCBG which seems to break new ground every single session. The Banking giant rose by another 5% to close the week at Rs268.00. The stock also continues to heavily dominate the market turnover. MCBG declared an interim dividend of Rs4.25 for the year ending 30 June 2017 (2016 = Rs4.00).

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