African Thoughts: October 26, 2015

Nigeria:

A better week in terms of activity in Lagos, but still nothing to write home about as total value traded increased +26.94% to $66m. There were a few crosses in the usual suspects that tried to get things going, but it seems that foreign investors (by and large) are still content to sit on the sidelines. The market closed the week higher with the ASI gaining +0.60% thanks largely to banking stocks as the index gained +1.39% with good performances in Access (+6.36%) and GTB (+4.21%). The consumer sector however closed -0.49% lower with Cadbury (-9.09%), Unilever (-8.83%) and Guinness (-5.20%) being major drags on the sector. We were firmly in the midst of earnings season last week with a whole host of companies releasing Q3 2015 results.

Kenya:

It was a rather quiet week in Kenya as a result of the public holiday and as such activity fell -45.7% with total value traded amounting to a dull $26.6m, while on the positive side, the market managed to close higher with the NSE 20 Index gaining +1.3%. Foreign investors were net buyers for the ninth straight week, recording net inflows of $2.5m and accounted for 82.6% of activity. EQBNK was the most active stock over the course of the week thanks to a large block trade on Friday where 16m shares crossed at 41. The bank is set to release Q3 2015 results today. Unfortunately the rest of the market was very dull and as such there is nothing much to report.

Zimbabwe:

A better week in Harare in terms of activity, but things still remain exceptionally quiet as turnover increased +152% to $2.04m with Delta (29%), CBZ (21%) and Econet (17%) dominating proceedings. The market continues its slide as the Industrial index fell -0.40%, taking the YTD loss to -19.80%. Losses in the likes of NatFoods (-5.17%) and Old Mutual (-1.09%) dragged the market lower.

Mauritius:

The market managed to close the week higher with the Semdex gaining +0.6%, trimming the YTD loss to -9.8%. Banking stocks ended the week mixed as MCBG gained +1.9% while SBMH closed unchanged. Hoteliers were completely mixed with NMH closing unchanged, SUN falling -1.4% while LUX gained +0.9%. It was an extremely dull week from an activity point of view with turnover amounting to a dire $2.83m.