Movers & Shakers: April 17, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.19%, USD 163k

The DCI continues to tick marginally higher as we saw trading across myriad counters. Letshego was the most active name accounting for about half the day’s volumes, closing at 258t. Choppies was the second most active and closed at 301t.

Egypt: EGX 30 -0.68%, USD 50m

The EGX30 index lost the buying support that was seen in yesterday's session after doubt overshadowed HRHO/Qinvest deal following the company's release that execution time might be too tight for the deal to go through without expiring, local institutional selling was evident in the name today. Another piece of news which came as a surprise and added to the overhang was the court sentencing PM "Hesham Qandil" to a year in prison as he failed to comply with previous court decision over returning a textile company to the state. The index closed at 5,259.07 down 0.68% on average volume of USD 50m. It's worth mentioning that foreign institutions were active today as we saw some mixed flows alongside several decent crosses to end the day Net buyers and accounting for 38.44% of market participation.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Buyers by 4.57 mn EGP and were 38.44% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Sellers by 10.32 mn EGP and were 53.44% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Buyers by 5.75 mn EGP and were 8.12% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by 6.06 mn EGP and were 49.82% of the market.
•  Retail were net Buyers by 6.06 mn EGP and were 50.17% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.30%, USD 13.7m

Equity turnover jumped 120.6%, driven by increased foreign investor activity accounting for 52% of trades compared to 24% in the previous session. The equities market continued to witness profit taking on selected counters with the NSE 20 index slipping 0.3% to 4,932.8 points. KCB (-0.6%) was the day’s top mover accounting for 34% of trades mainly on local investor trading. Of the top movers, Equity bank (-1.5%), EABL (-0.7) and Safaricom (+0.8) witnessed strong foreign investor demand accounting for over 90% of demand on the counters. Centum continued to witness strong investor demand climbing 2.4% to KES 21.50. On the losing end, Nation Media was amongst the top losers for the third straight session easing 6.1% to KES 295 on a supply overhang. Kenya Re witnessed profit taking after touching a new 12 month high yesterday, falling 2.4% to KES 17.80. The re-insurer is yet to announce its FY12 performance figures.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.16%, USD 1.5m

The Port Louis bourse increased slightly as we only saw 2 of the Sem-7 stocks move on the day, both for the positive. MCB finally broke its fall by gaining 53bps to Rs188 while Terra gained 25bps to Rs40.90. SBM was very active yet ended the day unchanged at Rs1.04.

Nigeria: ASI +0.18%, USD 58.46m

A number of very chunky crosses punctuated the Lagos session today. The index gained a marginal 18bps despite a fall of 97bps in the Banks. UBA (-9.09%, N7) and Access (-6.51%, N8.61) were weak the entire day and eventually succeeded in dragging GTB (-1.72%, N23.39) down with them. The rest of the banking sector was actually positive. The normally illiquid Wema Bank saw a large cross of 300m shares (approx. $2.5m) go through. The biggest action though was NB which saw a mammoth cross of 15m shares – the name eventually accounting for 38% of the day’s turnover and closing down 26bps at N160. ETI also witnessed a very large cross at 16.00. Dangote Sugar released results and closed down 4.6% at N8.30 on good volume. PZ gained 9.34% to close at N39.

South Africa: Top 40 -1.86%, USD 1.82bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 1.86% to close at 33,230 while value traded amounted to USD 1.82bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 3.34% followed by Financials and Industrials which fell 1.34% and 0.92% respectively. The Rand was trading at 9.18 and 11.97 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +0.50%, USD 219k

Another decent day in Lusaka with value traded amounting to USD 219k thanks to crosses in ZMBF and ZNCO. The names that traded included BAT, CEC, FQMZ, NATBREW, ZAMBREW, ZAIN, ZMBF, ZSUG and ZNCO. ZMBF was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 128k. ZNCO was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 33k.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.33%, Mining +1.73%, USD 530k

The market slowed down in mid week trades ahead of the independence holidays as daily volume traded came down 65.65% to approximately 8.7m resulting in the value of trades falling 66.32% $0.53m. Foreign purchases were down 62.65% a $0.38m while foreign sales more than doubled to $0.18m, a 103.63% improvement on yesterday’s $0.089m. Foreign flows however remain in a net inflow position and for the day closed at $0.2m. The mainstream industrial index added a marginal 0.62pts (0.33%) to close at 188.65 points on the back of gains in Barclays (0.1c to 3.1c), BAT (16c to 751c), CBZ (0.50c to 13.7c) and PPC (8.4c to 209c). The mining index was firm 1.01pts (1.73%) on the back of a firm bid in Falgold at 11c while the rest of the mining stocks were unchanged. Please not that the market will be closed tomorrow as a result of the Independence Day Holiday.

African Currencies