African Thoughts: October 19, 2015

Nigeria:

The Nigerian market remains very quiet as we saw Kenyan volumes higher on 2 out of the 5 days. There is little interest or direction and this manifests in a dull and uninspiring environment. Banks closed 67bps higher with only some activity taking place in names like Zenith Bank (N17.51, +9.10%). The Consumers were down by 1.73% with losses on the likes of Honeywell Flour (N2.55, -7.27%) and Flour Mills (N20.70, -5.91%). We have also seen the beginning of the Q3 reporting period with UBA, Forte Oil and Cadbury releasing results.

Kenya:

Despite trying to rally into the close the bourse was soft last week. The NSE 20 closed down by 3.5% (YTD -15.9%) while the NASI fell by 2.9% (YTD -23.7%). As has been the case for most of this year, activity was driven by block trades in the large cap names as well as BATK. The banks had a torrid week thanks to the news and resultant rumours surrounding firstly Imperial Trust Bank and then the sector as a whole. Equity Bank fell by 8.9% to KES41.00 while KNCB closed at KES41.75 (-5.1%). Safcom and EABL were also both weak falling by 1.7% and 2.7% respectively. As mentioned, BATK saw a couple of chunky crosses as it closed at KES796.00 (+4.2%).

Zimbabwe:

The Industrials fell by 28bps last week extending their YTD loss to 19.48% in yet another subdued week of trading. Despite the index falling we actually saw both Delta (+1.23%, 82.25c) and Econet (+4bps, 27.01c) creep higher. Econet released August 2015 Interim numbers during the week which showed a 17.7% fall in revenues and a 21% drop in EBITDA. This was mostly on the back of the tariff cut on voice calls imposed by the market regulators.

Mauritius:

Sentiment on the Mauritian bourse remains bearish as the Sem has now fallen for 10 consecutive sessions (longest down streak since early 2015). As usual, activity was focused on the big banks, particularly MCBG which bore witness to a few chunky crosses as the banking behemoth fell to Rs205.50 (-1.7%). SBMH was hammered to close down 3.7% at Rs0.79 - below the Rs0.80 level for the first time since January 2013.