African Thoughts: March 30, 2014


Nigeria:

All eyes were on Nigeria last week ahead of the general elections which took place over the weekend. From what we have heard and everyone that we have spoken to has commented that it was relatively peaceful and smooth, with one or two small technology glitches. Votes are still being counted and we should know the outcome in the next few days. Despite the caginess that normally surrounds elections, the market had a very good week with the ASI gaining +4.19% as banking stocks gained +7.89% after interest rates were kept unchanged at 13.00%. There were good performances in the sector from the likes of Fidelity (+16.28%) and Zenith +14.61%. Consumers (+4.05%) also had a very solid week thanks to Dangote Flour (+27.59%) and NB (+7.37%). Activity was also extremely robust as turnover increased 100% to $121.1m thanks to large crosses in Nestle, Zenith and NB over the course of the week. DangCem released FY 2014 results which saw a PAT of N159.5bn.

Kenya:

The market came under pressure for the fourth straight week in Nairobi as the NSE 20 Index fell -1.2% trimming the YTD gain to +2.5% as foreigners remained net sellers. Turnover rose slightly (+6.9%) to $47.5m as large crosses in KNCB and BATK drove proceedings with activity pretty evenly split between locals and foreigners. The two major banking stocks had a mixed picture saw KNCB had the highest net inflows ($1.9m) while EQBNK had the highest net outflows ($3.3m). Safcom continued to rally as the telco touched an all-time high of KES 17.50 with the name up +18.1% YTD. There were a number of results released last week with BRIT, BCBL and Bamburi all expected to release this week.

Zimbabwe:

It was an absolute dire week from an activity point of view in Harare as turnover fell a whopping -75.55% to a paltry $1.64m as foreigners continue to stay away from the market, as foreign activity accounted for 16% of total activity. It was also a bleak picture from a performance point of view as the Industrial Index fell -1.39% taking the YTD loss -1.65%. There was a small bit of activity in Econet (30%) and Delta (21%), but nothing to write home about.

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