African Thoughts: October 13, 2014


Nigeria:

The market came under some pressure last week with the ASI falling -1.60% which is largely attributable to a fall in banking stocks with the sector closing -2.88% lower. The major drags on the sector came in the form of Zenith (-6.17%), UBA (-4.51%), FBNH (-4.23%), Access (-2.77%) and GTB (-1.47%). Consumers however had a good week and managed to close +0.37% higher thanks to NB (+1.89%) and Cadbury (+0.58%) while Guinness fell -3.93%. It was a rather quiet week from a turnover perspective as value traded fell -45.31% to $75.67m as a result of the shortened trading week due to the Eid holidays. One of the highlights of last week was an off-market cross of 400m Transcorp at N5.20 in two separate transactions. Access released Q3 2014 results which saw PAT increase +27.9%. PZ Cussons released Q1 2015 results which saw PAT fall -30.32%.

Kenya:

The market closed the week lower for the third consecutive week with the NSE 20 Index falling -0.2% taking the YTD gain to +7.2%. On the positive side, turnover increased +25% to $69.1m as foreign participation remained broadly flat at 51.8% as while foreign outflows stood at $2.7m. The two largest banks had mixed fortunes with KNCB seeing the largest net inflows ($940K) while EQBNK saw the largest net outflows ($3.5m). Diamond Trust Bank was the most active name last week and accounted for 35% of turnover thanks to a number of large foreign crosses that took place over the course of the week. BATK was one of the weeks top performers and managed gain 5.2%, setting a new all-time high of KES 1,000 on the back of local demand. Britam (-18.5%) came under pressure after news that Cyton Investments was appointed lead advisor for a KES 40bn property deal.

Zimbabwe:

The market continued to come under pressure in Harare last week with the Industrial Index falling -2.23% extending the YTD losses to -6.42%. News that the countrys capacity utilization had fallen to 36.1% further exacerbated the weakness. Turnover remained rather average for the week and amounted to $8.9m thanks to a few large block trades in Zimplow. There was some action in the usual suspects Econet (34% of turnover) and Delta (21% of turnover) while the rest of the market was very quiet.

Mauritius:

A rather dull week from a performance point of view in Port Louis as the Semdex closed unchanged. It was a relatively active week as turnover amounted to $12.9m thanks to the likes of CFS, MCBG and Rogers which combined accounted for 52% of total turnover. The two major banks closed the week lower with MCBG falling -0.5% while SBM fell -1.9%. Hotel stocks also ended lower with NMH falling -0.6% while LUX fell -5.1%.

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