African Thoughts: November 21, 2016

Nigeria:

It was yet another absolutely atrocious week in Lagos as interest on the bourse remains at all-time lows. The ASI dripped down by a further 2.42% which now extends the YTD loss to 10.62% - in NGN terms it doesn’t sound too bad but when one accounts for the devaluation earlier this year the USD losses will be large. Both the Banking index (-2.39%) and the Consumer index (-1.78%) closed the week in negative territory. Losers in the consumers included Flourmills (N16.20, -14.38%), 7UP (N129.36, -9.74%), Glaxosmithkline (N13.54, -9.73%), Cadbury (N10.05, -9.62%), PZ (N14.99, -9.10%) and Nestle (N800.00, -1.84%). The negative performance in the banks were driven by DiamondBank (N0.89, -11.88%), ZenithBank (N14.18, -6.28%), Stanbic (N15.80, -2.23%) and Guaranty (N21.00, -2.23%).

Kenya:

The NSE 20 closed in the green for the 4th consecutive week – rose by 80bps although YTD the index is still down 18.5%. However, volumes remain rather dull across the board. Safcom was once again the most active stock although the telco finally gave back some ground by shedding 3.6% to KES20.00. Also on the loser’s table was EABL which ticked marginally lower to KES260.00. The banks had a solid week with EqBnk rising by 2.4% to KES32.00 while KNCB closed up 3.4% at KES30.75.

Zimbabwe:

The Industrials rose by 2.55% last week which increases the YTD gain for the index to 10.02%. As has been the case in recent weeks, the rise is being driven by strong local demand as local investors remain highly concerned over the possible imminent introduction of bond notes. However, while in past weeks we saw some decent volumes, a lot of supply has been cleared out which meant that volumes last week were rather dull. Among the market heavyweights, we saw Econet rise by 3.67% to 28c while Delta increased by 2.49% to 76.25c.

Mauritius:

The Semdex rose by 1.27% last week which now pushes the index performance into positive territory for the year (+53bps). Both the banks accumulated positive weeks after releasing results early in the week – MCBG rose by 1.4% to Rs216.00 while SBMH climbed to Rs7.00 (+2.6%). In other sectors we saw PBL reach all time high of Rs446 (+4.9%).