African Thoughts: May 19, 2014

A mixed week across our universe as results season comes to an end, but focus still very much on these results while news on NB taken as a positive.

Zimbabwe:

Results season continued with much of this focus on the Delta results while the index took a backward step after the recent strength (Industrials -1.68%). A brief summary of the Delta results showed the beverages company post a 1% drop in revenues while it posted a 2% rise in EBITDA and a 3% gain in attributable income. Overall activity also remained low. After the results we saw Delta log a -3.36% loss for the week to 115c while Dairibord fell by 2.79% to 8c. Econet closed the week unchanged at 66c.

Nigeria:

The NSE ASI gained 1.21% for the week under review with significant gains logged in NB (+9.43%, N163.05), Fidelity (+7.89%, N2.05) and ETI (+7.69%, N14.00). The market turnover continues to be dominated by crossing and we saw chunky crosses in NB, Zenith and GTB. The NB strength came on the back of the announcement of a potential merger between NB and Consolidated Breweries. In economic news, CPI data out showed a 7.9% increase in April compared to a 7.8% increase in March.

Kenya:

The NSE 20 recorded a marginal gain for the week under review while the broader NASI recorded a slight loss. Overall activity dropped from the previous week (which was an all-time high) but nevertheless still showed good signs of life. Foreign participation actually increased with foreign action skewed to the sell side. Safcom announced their FY14 results early in the week (31.2% increase in EPS) yet the telco ended the week unchanged at KES 12.85. Equity Bank was also extremely active yet profit taking finally hit the name as it lost 4.9% to KES 39.00 despite touching a high of KES 42.50. KNCB got dragged lower and shed 4.1% to KES 46.75 while EABL was also soft (-70bps, KES 297).

Mauritius:

The Sem-7 rose by 1.3% on the back of solid gains in the banks. MCBG rose by 90bps to Rs214 while SBM increased by 2.9% to Rs1.05. In the hotels, there were gains for NMH (+1.2%, Rs84.50) and Lux Island Resorts (+4%, Rs40.55) while Sun Resorts fell by 80bps to Rs39.15.