African Thoughts: September 05, 2016

Nigeria:

Another underwhelming week from an activity point of view in Lagos, as turnover fell -0.16% to $43.86m. There was some small action in GTB and NB over the course of the week, but nothing to get too overly excited about. The market managed to close the week higher with the ASI gaining +1.11% thanks mostly to consumer stocks as the sector gained +1.13% with some good performances in the likes of 7UP (+28.23%), Cadbury (+4.29%), GSK (+2.70%) and Guinness (+1.23%). Banking stocks (+0.70%) also managed to close in positive territory thanks to ETI (+3.08%) and GTB (+2.85%). The National Bureau of Statics confirmed what everyone had known for a while when they released 2016 Q2 GDP numbers which saw GDP fall -2.06%, officially putting the country in a technical recession. To make matters worse, inflation for July increased to 17.1% from 16.5% in June.

Kenya:

It was an extremely active week in Nairobi last week as the market recorded the highest weekly turnover for 2016 as value traded amounted to $85.72m, with Safcom, KNCB and EQBNK accounting for 81.3% of turnover. Foreign investors turned net sellers for the first time in 7 weeks to the tune of $1.16m while their participation stood at 84%. The market closed slightly lower, with the NSE 20 Index falling -0.9%, taking the YTD loss to -21.1%. Safcom (+1.5%) and EABL (-7.9%) recorded the highest net foreign inflows of $3.7m and $1.9m respectively. Banking heavyweights EQBNK (-10.2%) and KNCB (-1.9%) continued to struggle after the president signed a bill that will cap lending rates at 400bps above the base rate. According to data released by the CBK, the value of mobile money transactions increased +20.5% to 1.59 trillion (H1 2016) from 1.32trillion (H1 2015).

Zimbabwe:

It was a better week in Harare from an activity point of view, but still nothing to write home about as turnover increased +65.95% to $1.2m. Delta (31%), Simbisa (26%) and Innscor (16%) dominated what little activity there was. The market came closed the week in negative territory with the Industrial Index falling -0.86%, taking the YTD loss to -13.77%, with heavy losses in Delta (-4.56%) and Econet (-1.25%) weighing down the market.

Mauritius:

The market continued on its positive momentum last week (albeit very slightly), with the Semdex gaining +0.07%, taking the YTD gain to +0.47%. Banking stocks ended the week in negative territory with MCBG falling -0.1% while SBMH closed -1.4% lower. Hoteliers ended the week mixed with LUX gaining +3.0% while NMH fell -1.4%. It was a rather active week (relatively speaking) as turnover amounted to $10.7m with most of the action centered on MCBG and GreenBay as the two names accounted for 76.4% of turnover.