African Thoughts: October 06, 2014


Nigeria:

Despite a holiday on Wednesday for the Independence Day the NSE ASI gained 70bps last week with both the banks (+1.90%) and consumers (+45bps) strong. In the banks, it was mainly strength in Tier 2 names like Stanbic (+9.38%, N35) and Skye Bank (+8.71%, N2.87) that led the rally. Tier 1 names were also positive although muted in names like ETI, Access, GTB and Zenith. Consumers were led higher by the like of Cadbury (+2.27%, N53.69) and Guinness (+2.07%, N195.70). In other news ETI announced the Nedbank is to go ahead with the acquisition of the 20% shareholding in ETI. Please note that the NSE is closed on Monday and Tuesday for the Eid holidays.

Kenya:

The NSE 20 fell for the second consecutive week as it slipped by 30bps although YTD the NSE 20 is up a solid 7.4%. Banking stocks had a mixed week as we saw Equity Bank fall by 5.1% to KES 50.75 while KNCB closed 1.7% higher at KES 58.50. BATK was also strong as it rose by 7.5% to KES 950 although once again we saw a couple of very suspicious trades in the name. EABL gained 4% to KES 285 while Safcom ended the week unchanged at KES 12.70.

Zimbabwe:

The Industrials fell by 18bps last week with the index YTD standing at -4.29%. What was interesting to note is that foreign activity was much improved during the week compared to recent times and were skewed to the buy side. There were losses in Delta (-78bps, 128c) and Innscor (-2.96%, 65.99c) while Econet closed slightly higher at 77.5c. Seedco was also soft and fell by 5.26% to 90c.

Mauritius:

The Semdex rose by 20bps last week while the newly formed Sem-10 rose by a more modest 10bps. The banks were strong with outperformance noted in MCBG (+1.2%, Rs213.50), SBM (+90bps, Rs1.07) and Bramer Banking (+2.1%, Rs6.80). Hotels were more mixed with NMH (-30bps, Rs88.50), Lux (unch, Rs59.00) and Sun (+70bps, Rs44.90).

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