Movers & Shakers: April 02, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.05%, USD 117k

Another dull day in Botswana as little more than $100k changed hands while the index crept up marginally. Most of the activity was in Choppies (270t) and BIHL (1050t) while a few other names saw scrappy volumes go through.

Egypt: EGX 30 +0.65%, USD 123m

The market traded with a mixed sentiment today to end the day in negative territory, leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 0.39% to close 5,037.44 points. Market volumes remains very weak yet with a slight improvement to recent turnovers, the market traded a total turnover of EGP250m. The market started the day with a positive sentiment to reach a high of 5,076.54 yet by med-session the market started to witness selling pressure lead by international institutions selling, names such as JUFO, OCIC and CCAP were amongst the losers today each ending the day down 1.65%, 0.89% and 0.32% respectively, yet local institutions ended the day as notable buyer targeting various blue-chips benefiting from the recent price hits, names such as ORTE, ESRS and EAST witnessed a notable buying appetite each ending the day up 2.30%, 1.89% and 1.54% respectively. It’s worth mentioning that the Real-estate sector managed to regain some its losses gained earlier this week, names such as OCDI, TMGH and PHDC managed to trade the day in positive territory, each ending the day up 1.17%, 0.82% and 0.52% respectively.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 20.20 mn EGP and were 28.36% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 13.05 mn EGP and were 65.05% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Buyers by 7.14 mn EGP and were 6.59% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by 1.63 mn EGP and were 24.75% of the market.
•  Retail were net Buyers by 1.63 mn EGP and were 75.24% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 +3.50%, USD 10.8m

Following the Supreme court’s ruling on Saturday in favor of president elect Uhuru Kenyatta, as well as the Easter festivities, the bourse opened the week on a high note with gains being registered across almost all counters traded. The NSE 20 index registered its largest one day gain YTD climbing 3.5% and crossing the 5,000 points to close at 5,030.91 points. Equity turnover jumped 96% with most of the trades being generated by local investors who accounted for 66% of trades compared to 59.4% in the previous session. Safaricom was the day’s top mover accounting for 35% of volumes, buoyed by strong foreign investor demand. The teleco however closed the day unchanged at KES 6. EABL also witnessed strong foreign investor demand however the counter was the only loser today easing 0.3% to KES 310. All banking stocks registered gains, with Co-op Bank CFC Stanbic and Equity leading the pack climbing 9%, 8% and 7% to KES 17.80, KES 64.50 and KES 35.5 respectively all touching new 12 month highs. Insurance stocks also continued to perform well with Britam, Kenya Re and Pan Africa leading the pack climbing 9%, 8% and 6% to KES 9.45 KES 16.80 and KES 62.50 respectively.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.06%, USD 779k

A very quiet day after the day off for mourning in Mauritius following the weekend’s flash flooding. Activity was very muted, the only movers on the Sem-7 were MCB (-13bps, Rs191), Terra (-71bps, Rs42) and Bramer banking (+2.82%, Rs7.30). Virtually the only name to have traded was MCB which accounted for about 83% of the daily turnover.

Nigeria: ASI +2.45%, USD 26.17m

After a relatively quiet start we saw a number of crosses throughout the day while the Tier 1 banks got active and aggressive shortly before the close after Zenith announced a corporate action (div of N1.60). GTB also announced a div of N1.30 after the close, having previously announced a div of 25 kobo. All banking names closed in the green, with the main leaders being FBNH (+3.33%, N20.46), GTB (+5.17%, N27.45) and Skye Bank (+6.74%, N6.65). As mentioned, much of this strength came just before the close after the Zenith announcement. Crosses in Nestle (+1.05%, N960.02) and NB (+1.72%, N166) came on good volume and were the main focus in the consumer sector. UACN (+7.27%, N59), Flourmills (+1.13%, N78.15) and Dangote Sugar (+2.47%, N8.70) were also strong although on light volumes. The cement sector also saw bulls taking charge with CCNN, DangCem and Wapco all closing more than 4% up.

South Africa: Top 40 +0.38%, USD 1.2bn

The JSE tracked global markets higher as banks and financials led the charge. The rand was trading at R9.21, R11.82 and R13.93 v the USD, EUR and GBP at the time of writing.

Zambia: LuSE +0.71%, USD 76k

Another day goes by in Lusaka, and another dull day as just $76k changes hands as investors continue to lose interest in the bourse. Lafarge gained 1.16% to K8.60 while Zanaco gained 4% to K0.25, although volumes very thin.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.28%, Mining -0.03%, USD 670k

A slow opening session to the quarter saw just 2.1m shares exchanging hands on the bourse yielding a dismal $670k - down 65.6% from the turnover recorded in the last session. The decline in value came, however, against the backdrop of an increase in active stocks to thirty four from twenty nine last Thursday. Similarly foreign participation was subdued with purchasing accounting for an estimated $398k (down 66%) while sales were $159k (down 74%) and the market closing in a net inflow position. Thirteen stocks registered price movements with shakers dominating at a count of eight against only five risers. Zimplow traded -10% softer at 4.5c as the diversified group struggles to find footing since the release its first combined set of results. TSL took a -5.6% knock on partial profit taking while bearish sentiment in Meikles saw the group drop -4.8% to 20c. Tyre distributors NTS closed down 4.4% at 2.2c while banking group FBCH completed the shakers list with a -2.5% decline to 7.8c. Mitigating the market losses were gains in paper processing and packaging company Hunyani that gained 25% to 3c. Star Africa followed after adding +11.8% to 1.9c while Masimba added +5.2% to close at 2.63c as demand remains resilient in the construction group. CFI and Innscor completed the gains for the day rising +2.5% and 0.01% to close at 4.1c and 85.01c respectively. The Mining index came off -0.33% to 66.19pts weighed down by a -0.08% loss in Hwange to 12c. The rest of the mining stocks were unchanged.

African Currencies