Movers & Shakers: April 03, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.01%, USD 1.6m

Letshego action accounted for 98% of todays turnover – large crosses went through allowing the name to close marginally higher at 257t. Nothing else of note in the market.

Egypt: EGX 30 -2.21%, USD 37m

The market witnessed notable selling today lead by institutional investors (Local and international), leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 2.21% to close at 4,926.22 points. Market volumes remains very weak yet with a slight improvement to recent turnovers, the market traded a total turnover of USD 37m. The market witnessed notable profit booking lead mainly from international and local institutions targeting names such as COMI, HRHO and PHDC, each ending the day down 4.80%, 2.06% and 3.09% respectively, this was mainly attributed to the ongoing political distress in the country creating a general worry about the ongoing economical woes on Egypt.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 20.57 mn EGP and were 23.92% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 16.67 mn EGP and were 69.81% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Buyers by 3.89 mn EGP and were 6.27% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by 24.67 mn EGP and were 36.14% of the market.
•  Retail were net Buyers by 24.67 mn EGP and were 63.85% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.22%, USD 6.6m

The equities market today witnessed mild profit taking following yesterday’s rally, with the NSE 20 easing 0.22% to 5019.73 points. Equity turnover fell 38.5%, with local investors continuing to dominate trading, accounting for 64% of trades. EABL was the day’s top mover accounting for 21% of volumes buoyed by strong foreign investor demand. Of the top movers KCB (-1.2%) and Kenya Re (-2.1%) edged down while Safaricom (+2.5%) and CIC insurance (+2.6%) gained. Total Kenya was the day’s top gainer, climbing 9% to close at KES 15.10. Liberty insurance extended its gains edging up further 7.2% to touch a new 12 month high of KES 11.20. Cement manufacturers Bamburi and ARM led the top losers list, easing 6.67% and 3.57% to KES 210 and KES 67.50 respectively. Of the banking counters NIC (-3.57%), National Bank (-2.17), Barclays (-1.67%) KCB (-1.18%) and Co-op (-0.84%) reversed some of the gains made yesterday.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.28%, USD 1.3m

A pretty dull day in Mauritius as most action focused yet again on MCB, followed by SBM and Alteo. The major banks both closed down with MCB (-13bps, Rs190.75) and SBM (-96bps, Rs1.03) while Bramer Banking closed up 1.1% at Rs7.38.

Nigeria: ASI +0.57%, USD 40.3m

A sprightly day in Lagos despite the mess with the Bloomberg feeds. The first half of the market was extremely difficult as the Bloomberg feed from the NSE was down so most investors were flying in the dark. This part of the session was notable for the bulls buying the banks aggressively after the Zenith and GTB results yesterday. Despite some softening, all banks eventually closed in the green, with the notable exception of GTB which saw a big seller come in and hit the name all the way down (-6.45%, N25.68). Access Bank released results during the session yet the name ended up +10bps at N10.50 while all other banks closed solidly in the green. The consumer sector was once again dominated by Nestle (+1bp, N960.11) and NB (+1.81%, N169).

South Africa: Top 40 -1.72%, USD 1.49bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 1.72% to close at 34,782 while value traded amounted to USD 1.49bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 2.38% followed by Financials and Industrials which fell 1.62% and 1.12% respectively. The Rand was trading at 9.21 and 11.83 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +0.11%, USD 2.6k

Another uninspiring day in Lusaka with value traded amounting to a rather paltry USD 2.6k. With such dire activity there is unfortunately nothing to report.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.28%, Mining +0.92%, USD 3.34m

The ZSE industrials recovered from yesterday’s loss to post a +0.28% rebound to 183.89pts led by renewed interest in market heavyweights. It was a much improved trading session with turnover surging +401% to $3.34m on similarly increased volume of shares being traded from the thirty five active stocks one better than yesterday. Driving the demand was a surge in foreign inflows that accounted for 72% ($2.4m) of the total market value with the market closing in a net inflow position of $1.4m. Agro industrial stock AICO was the pick of the day after registering a +18.18% gain to 6.5c as the market responded to the republication cautionary advising of possible transactions that are being negotiated. The mining index gained 0.92% to close at 66.80pts on the back of a +4.17% gain in HWANGE while the rest of the mining stocks were unchanged.

African Currencies