African Thoughts: March 27, 2017


Nigeria:

In Lagos we had yet another woefully quiet week. There is such a palpable lack of interest in the market that the ASI just continues to drift lower on the back of tiny volumes. The ASI closed down 77bps for the week, taking the YTD loss to -5.28%, with both the Banks (-2.08%) and Consumers (-31bps) ending the week lower. In economic news, the MPC met early in the week and on Tuesday announced an unchanged (as expected) MPR of 14%. Results season also continues to chug along slowly, and this week we saw results out in the likes of Stanbic, Lafarge Africa, Unilever and Cadbury. Activity increased ever so slightly to $31.16m.

Kenya:

The Kenyan bourse rose by 3.15% for the week under review. However, turnover for the week was relatively quiet compared to recent weeks with a daily ADV of less than $5m. Yet again, Safcom dominated the turnover stakes with some chunky trades going through on most days. The telco also gained a solid 2.78% to KES18.45. EABL continues to grind higher and rose by a further 1.38% to KES221.00. The 2 major banking groups also had solid weeks – KNCB rose by 5% to KES31.50 while Equity Bank rose by 4.95% to KES30.25.

Zimbabwe:

The major talking point in Harare was an abnormally large cross in Econet last Friday. The cross was for 52m shares at 14c ($7.3m) right before the close. Details surrounding the trade remain sketchy but seem to be related to the company and the recent rights issue. Outside of this, there was some extra demand in Econet which pushed the stock higher to a weekly close of 16c while Delta dripped slightly lower to 85.5c. The Industrial Index continued to struggle and fell -0.28% for the week.

Mauritius:

In Mauritius the Semdex inched higher by 17bps for the week although there is no specific direction being shown. Once again, turnover was heavily dominated in MCBG, SBMH and NMHL. In the banks, MCBG closed down 40bps at Rs224.00 while SBMH ended the week unchanged at Rs7.00. NMHL rose by 20bps to Rs21.00. We also saw IBL reach yet another all-time high of Rs38.75 (+2.20%).

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