Movers & Shakers: August 02, 2013

Botswana: DCI -0.06%, USD 109k

Letshego once again almost the entire market in Gaborone as the stock closed at 223t. Outside of this name virtually nothing happened.

Egypt: Closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.09%, USD 11.3m

Excellent day in Nairobi to end the week in terms of activity with value traded amounting to $11.3m. EABL accounted for the bulk (69%) of turnover today with foreigners dominating purchases (94.4%) in the name. Kenya Commercial Bank was relatively active as 1.7m shares changed hands on the name with locals dominating activity in the counter. EA Cables released dissapointing H1 2013 results with a decline of -16.7% in net profits but still managed to close the day unchanged. Safcom was relatively quiet today with most of the foreign focus on EABL.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.10%, USD 830k

The Sem-7 also slipped by 10bps as only 1 stock in the Sem-7 rose for the sessions, this being NMH which rose by 1.5% to Rs66. There were 2 fallers in the index, namely MCB (-50bps, Rs190) and Bramer Banking (-1.6%, Rs6.30).

Nigeria: ASI +0.34%, USD 21.8m

Another day for the bulls as the index rose by 34bps and yet again banks and consumers leading the charge. The banks were up 125bps with Tier 1 names yet again the ones pushing the sector higher. The best performers were UBA (+5.12%, N8.42) and Zenith (+3.61%, N20.93) while some softness was evident in the Tier 2 names, mostly in Stanbic (-9%), FCMB (-3.6%) and Skye Bank (-2.4%). The consumers gained 64bps with this strength purely down to NB (+1.65%, N177.90) and Unilever (+72bps, N63.01). NB, Nestle and Unilever all traded on good volume. For the third day in a row we saw the cement sector see some chunky volumes, yet again the names being Ashaka Cement (-1.16%, N25.50) and Dangote Cement (+66bps, N196) the bulk of this.

Please note that the index figure above is correct at the time of writing.

South Africa: Top 40 -0.68%, USD 1.43bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.68% to close at 37,218 while value traded amounted to USD 1.43bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 1.07% followed Industrials which fell 0.58% while Financials gained 0.16%. The Rand was trading at 9.87 and 13.11 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE -2.59%, USD 104k

Better day in Lusaka in terms of activity with value traded amounting to USD 104k thanks to crosses FQMZ ($55k) and BATZ ($39k) with not much else on the go.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.84%, Mining -0.66%, USD 900k

Investor commitment waned in week ending trades as the nation continued to receive election results. Activity was confined to 19 counters, a decline from yesterday’s 22. Of these 4 gained, 5 lost and 10 were unchanged. The uneasiness saw industrials shedding -0.84% to 231.21pts. Minings also retreated -0.66% to 66.33pts weighed by the -2% fall in nickel miners BNC to 2.45c. Industrial declines were in holding company AICO down -6.8% to 7.51c, Barclays -15.5% slump to 5.5c and property stocks Dawn and Pearl -10% and -4.2% falls to 0.9c and 2.97c respectively. Turnover of the day came down -37% to $0.9m despite improved foreign participation with purchases surging +86% to $0.6m and sales up +24% to $0.5m. Friday volumes rose 200% to 7.2m boosted by the 5.1m Pearl block trade.

African Currencies