Movers & Shakers: April 04, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.30%, USD 420k

Letshego yet again dominating the Gaborone bourse accounting for over 80% of the turnover. The name closed unchanged at 257t. We also saw mild action in Choppies and BIHL while only scraps traded in a couple of other names.

Egypt: EGX 30 +1.19%, USD 30m

The market managed to regain some of yesterday’s losses to end the day in the greens lead by notable buying from local institutional investors, leaving the EGX30 to end the day up 1.19% to close at 4,985.08 points. Market volumes remains very weak, the market traded a total turnover of USD 30m. The market traded the day with a positive sentiment with local institutional notable buyers in the market, this come after the market witnessed notable selling since week start, yet market prices managed to attract investors with names such as COMI, OCIC and CCAP witnessing decent buying to end the day up 2.17%, 1.85% and 0.99% respectively, yet names such as HRHO, UNIT and ACGC traded against the general market sentiment to end the day down 0.95%, 1.67% and 0.30% respectively.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 13.78 mn EGP and were 20.18% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 8.11 mn EGP and were 69.21% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Buyers by 5.66 mn EGP and were 10.61% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Buyers by .648 mn EGP and were 35.83% of the market.
•  Retail were net Sellers by .648 mn EGP and were 64.14% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.88%, USD 5.1m

The equities market dipped for the second session in a row, as investors continued to take profit across most of the counters traded. The NSE 20 index eased 0.88% to 4975.77 points, with 31 of the counters traded declining and only 9 advancing. Equity turnover fell 24% driven by reduced local investor participation at 56% of trades compared with 64% in the previous session. BAT and Safaricom led the top movers list collectively accounting for 32% of volumes, with foreign investors accounting for over 90% of demand on the counters. Of the top mover only Safaricom and KCB witnessed gains, climbing 2.4% and 1.2% respectively, while Equity Bank, Barclays Bank and Britam eased 2.1%, 3.7%, 4.2% respectively. Apart from Safaricom other top gainers were on thin volumes. On the losing end Pan Africa Insurance pulled back 7.8% to KES 59.50. After touching a new 12 month high at the beginning of the week Centum reversed some of the profits made in previous sessions slipping 6.1% to KES 19.95.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.28%, USD 1.02m

Another soft day in Port Louis as the bears won yet again. In the Sem-7 only 3 stocks moved, and all of them into the red. NMH lost 1.35% to Rs73 while Terra and Bramer Banking lost 1.19% and 1.63% to Rs41.50 and Rs7.26 respectively. MCB and SBM both ended the day unchanged. Air Mauritius gained 1.53% to Rs13.30.

Nigeria: ASI -0.61%, USD 26.59m

An exciting start followed by a lull and then some more excitement into the close. Banks were the recipients of some profit taking with Tier 2 banks in particular bearing the full brunt of this as all names closed in the red. Tier 1 banks were more mixed with FBNH, GTB and Zenith all positive while ETI and UBA fell and Access closed unchanged. The sector was characterized by a number of sizeable crosses. As expected, most of the focus was in the banks and as such the consumer names were rather quiet. NB fell by 5.91% to N159.01 while Dangote Sugar and Guinness also lost ground, although Cadbury gained 1.43% to N35.50.

South Africa: Top 40 -0.92%, USD 1.50bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.92% to close at 34,464 while value traded amounted to USD 1.50bn. Industrials were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 1.25% followed by Financials and Resources which fell 0.74% and 0.47% respectively. The Rand was trading at 9.18 and 11.79 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE -0.13%, USD 10.7k

Another dire day in Zambia with value traded amounting to USD 10.7k. There is once again no significant action to speak of in the market as trade was extremely thin in the few names that actually traded.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.70%, Mining unch, USD 530k

The mainstream industrial index surged higher by 0.7% to close at 185.17pts further solidifying the gains registered yesterday albeit in arelatively quiet session in which turnover and volume spectacularly declined 84% to $0.53m and 32.6% to 8.6m respectively. Gains in Innscor propelled the market upwards despite only 30 counters registering trade. The mining index was unchanged at 66.88pts at close of call.

African Currencies