Movers & Shakers: April 22, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.71%, USD 438k

Some action in FNBB drove activity today with value traded amounting to USD 438k. Other than the cross in FNBB the market was relatively quiet with only smalls traded in the likes of Letshego. The market closed higher with the DCI gaining 0.71% to close at 8,688.67.

Egypt: EGX 30 -0.73%, USD 38m

The market witnessed notable selling today lead buy institutional investors (international), leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 0.73% to close at 5,215.49 points. Market volumes remains weak yet with a slight improvement to recent turnovers, the market traded a total turnover of USD 38m. The market witnessed notable profit booking lead mainly from international institutions targeting names such as HRHO, CCAP, and PHDC, each ending the day down 3.33%, 2.01% and 1.80% respectively, yet local investors (institutional and retail) ended the day as strong buyers benefiting from the various price hits targeting names such as COMI, ETEL and ORTE each ending the day up 0.73%, 0.64% and 0.22% respectively. It’s worth mentioning that local institutions started the day as aggressive sellers, yet they ended the day as notable buyers.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 26.16 mn EGP and were 29.13% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 26.72 mn EGP and were 65.37% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Sellers by 0.56 mn EGP and were 5.50% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by 12.10 mn EGP and were 44.11% of the market.
•  Retail were net Buyers by 12.10 mn EGP and were 55.88% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.59%, USD 2.3m

The equities market started the week on a low note, extending last week’s losses on falling volumes. The day was incredibly disrupted as the NSE ATS system kept on going down. The NSE 20 lost 59bps to 4,839.5 points; with 25 of the counters traded declining and 11 advancing. Equity turnover fell 25.3%, with foreign investors accounting for 57% of trades. Safaricom was the day’s top mover accounting for half the session’s volumes, buoyed by active foreign investor trading on both sides of the counter. Mumias sugar was also fairly active today with foreign investors accounting for 90% of demand on the counter. The Sugar miller however remained flat at KES 4.75. National Bank was amongst the top gainers list climbing 1.1% to KES 22.75 ahead of its KES 0.20 final dividend book closure on Thursday 25th. Access Kenya continued to recoup its losses gaining 1.1% to KES 9.15. Diamond Trust bank was the day’s top loser easing 7.8% to KES 142, albeit on thin volumes.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.04%, USD 669k

A slight increase in activity but still nothing to write home about as value traded amounted to a dissapointing USD 669k. All the major banking stocks ended the day unchaged with MCB being the most active in the sector. There was significant foreign interest in NMH today as the counter was the most active stock in the market with a total of 99k shares traded.

Nigeria: ASI +0.32%, USD 21.5m

Most of the day in Lagos was pretty uneventful although a number of chunky crosses livened up the market. The banking sector rebounded in spectacular style closing up 2.04% with Tier 1 names leading the charge. Zenith posted solid results and the name responded positively, closing up 2.6% at N19.70. The best performers were UBA (+4%, N7.28) and Guaranty (+3.63%, N25.09) and all names (bar Fidelity) closed in the green. Consumers were very subdued until some NB crossing at N160 towards the close bumped up the activity in the sector, NB eventually settling unchanged at N160. The rest of the sector was very quiet.

South Africa: Top 40 -0.76%, USD 1.45bn

A red day on the screens in Johannesburg as all sectors closed down, with the exception of Golds which showed a strong bounce after last week’s problems. The ZAR continues to struggle and was trading at R9.26, R12.07 and R14.12 v the USD, EUR and GBP respectively at the time of writing.

Zambia: LuSE -0.83%, USD 19k

Slow start to the week in Lusaka with value traded amounting to USD 19k. The names that traded included CEC, LAFA, PUMA, ZSUG and ZNCO. LAFA was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 8k. ZNCO was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 5k.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.06%, Mining +6.45%, USD 670k

The ZSE industrial index opened the week softer albeit marginally after shedding -0.06% to 188.52pts in a thinly traded session. Volumes traded fell 50.6% to just fewer than 2m shares yielding just $0.67m in value of trades indicating a 56.7% decline. Likewise foreign participation was subdued for the day with inflows amounting to $0.41m having declined 58.9% while outflows fell 87% to $0.07m. The mining index was in a surprise 6.45% rally to 71.5pts on a surge on demand for gold miners Falgold that closed the day +59.8% up at 16c. An improved bid in Hwange at 13c compared to its last trading price also helped lift the mining index.

African Currencies