African Thoughts: November 10, 2014


Nigeria:

It was an absolute blood bath in Lagos last week with the ASI falling by a mammoth -11.54%. Consumer stocks came under severe pressure with the Index falling -12.65% with some heavy losses in the likes of Dangote Sugar (-29%), Nestle (-14.35%), UACN (-15.70%) and NB (-12.15%), while the picture was pretty bleak across the rest of the sector as well. Banks were also very weak after a strong start on Monday as the Index fell -7.39% with FBNH (-20.03%), FCMB (-20.03%), ETI (-19.00%), Access (-12.94%), UBA (-9.47%) and GTB (-4.00%) all dragging the sector lower. Cements were not spared either as WAPCO and DangCem fell -30.14% and -12.31% respectively. Activity picked up towards the end of the week as total value traded rose +46.51% to $161.37m. DangCem released Q3 2014 results which saw PAT fall -10.03%. It will be interesting to see whether the sell-off continues this week, although it should be noted that we did see some large block buyers returning to the market towards the end of the week.

Kenya:

The market closed the week lower in Nairobi with the NSE 20 Index falling -2.3% while turnover also fell -12.6% to $37.8m. What was pleasing was the fact that foreigners turned net buyers for the first time in over four weeks. Safcom was the most active name on the bourse as the telco rallied +6.6% on the back of foreign demand after releasing H1 2015 the prior week. EQBNK saw the highest net outflows for the week on foreign selling pressure. All eyes will be on KNCB tomorrow as the name will be releasing Q3 2014 results while Kenya Airways will be releasing H1 2015 numbers on Thursday. Inflation declined for the second consecutive month as the CPI fell -0.2% for October.

Zimbabwe:

Not a pretty picture in Harare as the market fell for the 11th consecutive week with the Industrial Index falling -0.55% taking the YTD loss to -12.47%. It was also a dire picture from an activity point of view as turnover for the week amounted to a paltry $3.93m as foreign participants remain mostly absent. The usual names drove proceedings with some activity in the likes of Econet (47%), Seedco (18%), Delta (13%) and Dairibord (13%).

Mauritius:

The market closed the week lower in Port Louis with the Semdex falling -0.7% trimming the YTD gain to +0.9%. Activity was fairly robust as turnover for the week amounted to $13m with the likes of MCBG, SBMH and Ciel driving proceedings. MCBG (-1.08%) and SBMH (-0.96%) closed the week lower after Moodys downgraded their deposit ratings from Baa3 to Baa1. Hoteliers were also under pressure as NMH and LUX fell -0.6% and -0.9% respectively.

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