African Thoughts: March 02, 2014

Nigeria:

Another rather slow week in Lagos from a turnover point of view as total value traded for the week amounted to $105.21 (-6.30%) with the likes of GTB and NB driving proceedings. It was a good week from a performance point of view with the ASI gaining +2.81% thanks to the banking sector which managed to gain +5.69% as Access (+14.29%) and GTB (+7.90%) put in good performances. Consumers were also very solid as the Index managed to gain +2.34% thanks to Flour Mills (+9.59%) and NB (+3.93%). Nestle released FY 2014 results which saw PBT fall -6.7% and declared a final dividend of N17.50 per share. A contributing factor towards the positive sentiment was the announcement by the government that the election dates will go ahead as follows; Presidential/ National Assembly - 28th March 2015, Governorship/ State House of Assembly - 11th April 2015.

Kenya:

Activity continued to increase for the third week in a row in Nairobi as total value traded increased 12.1% to $52.3m as foreign participation increased to 50.7%. Another positive was the fact that the market managed to close the week higher with the NSE 20 Index gaining +0.50%. KNCB managed to close the week +0.84% after posting FY 2014 results which saw PAT increase +23.9%. EABL came under a bit of pressure with the brewer falling -10.4% for the week after competitor Keroche Breweries announced that they are set to open a new plant in March 2015 and list on the Stock Exchange. Barclays Bank is set to release FY 2014 results on the 6th of March 2015.

Zimbabwe:

An extremely dull week from an activity point of view in Harare as turnover fell -79.78% with total value traded amounting to $3.48m as foreigners were all but absent from the market. The market closed the week lower with the Industrial Index falling -0.58%, decreasing the YTD gain to +2.68%. Delta (21%), CBZ (21%) and Econet (18%) were the weeks most active stocks with CBZ (+11.1%) releasing FY 2014 results which saw PAT come in at $33m.

Mauritius:

The market managed to close the week higher in Port Louis with the Semdex gaining +0.9%, trimming the YTD loss to -2.7%. On the negative side, it was rather slow from an activity point of view as turnover amounted to $8.6m with foreigners being net sellers as MCBG accounted for 65% of total turnover. Banking stocks ended the week mixed with MCBG gaining +1.2% while SBMH fell -1.0%. NMH came under some serious pressure with the hotelier falling -5.9%.