African Thoughts: September 07, 2015

Nigeria:

The ASI actually gained for the week, for the first time in a while. The ASI closed up 2.42% with both the banks (+8.46%) and the consumers (+3.61%) closing in the green. The Bank were led higher by gains on UBA (N3.81, +20.57%), Diamond Bank (N3.57, +17.82%) and GT Bank (N23.95, +10.22%). The Consumer Index was up by 3.61% thanks to the likes of PZ (N25.28, +15.38%) and NB (N124.50, +7.60%). This was somewhat countered by losses in Cadbury (N25.79, -9.70%) and Dangote Sugar (N6.62, -8.82%). There was also news out late in the week re Dangote Cement cutting prices. Initially the cement sector felt weak but wasn't badly affected.

Kenya:

The NSE 20 rose by 80bps last week while the NASI rose by a more impressive 2.8% although volumes were extremely quiet. For the second consecutive week foreign participants were net buyers although flows remain difficult to come by. As always, the top 4 names were the most active stocks and all of these closed in the green for the week. The biggest gainer was Equity Bank which closed 8.4% higher at KES41.75. KNCB tried to jump on the coattails and rose by 2.3% to KES45.00. EABL (+2.6%, KES277.00) and Safcom (+4.9%, KES14.85) were also strong.

Zimbabwe:

Another week, another sell-off in Harare as the Industrial Index fell -0.50%, taking the YTD loss to -17.16% thanks to losses in heavyweights Econet (-3.50%), CBZ (-4.26%) and OK Zim (-6.42%). On the positive side we saw gains in Innscor (+0.02%) and Delta (+0.46%). Volume increased +72% to $5.2m with some action in Delta (39%), Econet (32%) and Innscor (17%). Zimplats reported a 21% drop in output for FY 2015.

Mauritius:

A better week in Port Louis from a performance point of view with the Semdex gaining +0.72% thanks to gains in SBMH (+3.57%) and MCBG (+0.96%). A rather boring week in the hoteliers with NMG gaining +0.3% while LUX closed unchanged. A relatively decent week from an activity point of view as turnover amounted to $8.7m thanks largely to MCBG, Sanlam and SBMH while foreigners remained net sellers ($3.2m).

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