African Thoughts: March 10, 2014

Nigeria:

Activity slowed down 28% in Lagos last week as value traded amounted to $112.2m as Zenith Bank, Nigerian Breweries, Guaranty Trust Bank and Access Bank were the week’s most active stocks. The market closed the week lower with the ASI falling -1.53% with consumers coming under pressure as the index fell -4.67% with Guinness (-13.22%) being the major drag on the sector. Banking stocks managed to close the week slightly higher with the index gaining +0.26% thanks to Zenith which put in a stellar performance and gained +4.53%. The Nigerian Stock Exchange started a process that will reduce the amount investors pay for transactions. A statement on Tuesday by the head of public relations, Mr. Dante Martins, explained the NSE would reduce the cost of its trade alert by about N1.24bn. Fitch Ratings has affirmed the long-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) of Zenith Bank Plc, FBN Holdings Plc and eight other financial institutions. The others are First Bank of Nigeria Limited, United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTB), Access Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, and Union Bank Plc.

Kenya:

The market closed the week slightly lower as the NSE 20 Index fell -0.5% while turnover decreased 21.6% to a seven week low. Foreign activity also decreased to 51.7%. Safcom and EABL were the week’s most active counters and together accounted for 42.3% of total value traded. Safcom and Airtel have bought out Essar Telecom Kenya, yuMobile which has reduced the number of players in the industry to three. Safcom is to buy yuMobile’s infrastructure and retain about 130 employees in the technical department. Airtel is to acquire the 2.7m subscribers by taking over the mobile number prefix, thus allowing customers to migrate to its network without having to change their identities.

Zimbabwe:

The market closed the week lower in Nairobi as the Industrial Index fell -0.17% taking the year to date loss to -6.43%. It was however pleasing to see demand in Econet and Delta as they gained 2.6% and 0.49% respectively. Innscor and Natfoods released results last week as the two enjoy mixed fortunes with Innscor falling -3.84% while Natfoods gained 2.5%. Activity increased 89% to $9.99m as Delta was the most active counter during the week while block trades in COTTCO and Zimplow helped boost activity.

Mauritius:

The market ended the week lower in Port Louis as the Semdex fell -0.3% with the banking and hotel sub-indices falling -0.2% and -3.6%. The two major banking stocks ended the week mixed with MCB gaining +0.2% while SBM fell -1.0%. Activity was relatively subdued as value traded amounted to $7.5m. SBM will issue bonds to the value of MUR 1.5bn. Tourist arrivals for February fell -2.70% with the YTD figure standing at +0.70%.