Movers & Shakers: August 08, 2012

African Currencies as at approximately GMT 16:30

Botswana: DCI +0.05%, USD 35k

A very subdued session today in Bots, only $35k worth passing through the exchange thank to the 4 stocks that were active. The only stock that changed price was Letlole which fell -1t to close at 140t.

Egypt: EGX 30 -1.08%, USD 79m

The market ended the day on a negative note leaving EGX30 to end the day down 1.08% to close at 4,994.91 points. Market traded decent volumes, market traded a total turnover of USD 79m, its worth mentioning that COMI witnessed huge crosses accounting for more than 21% of the total turnover. With tensions rising after reported clashes between the police forces and militants in Sinai and President Mursi ordering Military and police to seize control over the Sinai peninsula, a sense of panic spread of amongst international investors selling pressure witnessed in various blue chips, names such as OTMT, CCAP and ESRS witnessed notable selling pressure each ending the day down 3.57%, 2.87% and 2.64% respectively.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Buyers by 16.73 mn EGP and were 44.94% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 14.65 mn EGP and were 51.57% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Sellers by 2.07 mn EGP and were 3.49% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Buyers by 4.84 mn EGP and were 52.10% of the market.
•  Retail were net Sellers by 4.84 mn EGP and were 47.89% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.01%, USD 3.66m

Activity picked up today after two rather dull days with value traded amounting to $3.66m. Equity Bank was rather active with foreigners dominating trading in the name (81% of purchases and 76% of sales) as a total of 5.11m shares changed hands. There was renewed foreign interest in BATK today as they accounted for 100% of purchases in the counter with 160k shares traded. Foreigners once again dominated activity in EABL (98% of purchases and 95% of sales) as 190k shares traded thanks to a large cross that went through mid-session. Foreigners were net buyers and accounted for $2.47m of total purchases while they accounted for $1.67m of total sales. The market closed the day slightly lower with the NSE 20 Index falling 0.01% to close at 3,815.10.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.54%, USD 1.8m

Activity levels picked up in today’s session while the exchange fell -0.54%. MCB was the most active counter, accounting for 45% of the total activity, trading at an unchanged price of Rs167.00, the other big bank SBM managed to gain +0.61% to close at Rs82.5. NMH took a serious beating after releasing results yesterday, -8.82% to close at Rs62.00. Losses were higher than the same period last year Rs172m as opposed to Rs142m. Unfavorable exchange rates, increased expenses and losses booked by NMH’s associates were contributing factors. Rogers was the other Sem-7 name that made ground +0.65%.

Nigeria: ASI -0.96%, USD 10m

It was another slow day in Nigeria today. The mkt closed almost a full percent down but this was largely due to the -3.8% fall by mkt heavyweight DangC. Outside of the cement sector, the usual driver of the mkt – the banks – had a good day +0.73%. There were no red numbers from the top tier names and the only bank to close in the red was FCMB -0.97%. The two conglomerates Flourmills and PZ lost significant ground -4.76% and -3.86% respectively. One of the other Dangote names DangS also lost ground today -3.54%.

South Africa: Top 40 +0.09%, USD 1.28bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.09% to close at 31,251 while value traded amounted to USD 1.28bn. Resources were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 0.82% while Industrials and Financials fell 0.09% and 0.07% respectively. The Rand was trading at 8.12 and 10.08 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE -0.39%, USD 65k

Not much went on in Zambia today with value traded amounting to USD 65k. The names that traded included AELZ, BATZ, CECZ, PMDZ, REIZ, SCBL, ZNCO and ZAIN. ZAIN was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 49k. SCBL was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 14k.

Zimbabwe: Industrial Index -0.03%, Mining -3.23%, USD 409k

Barely a month after breaking into positive territory, the mining index has failed to maintain the momentum receding back into the losses after a 3.23% loss took their YTD performance into the negative (1.09%). Falgold was bid lower at 15c having peaked at 35c during the past two weeks while Rio lost 14.04% to 49c after publishing revised 2011 financial following adjustments and reclassifications necessitated by the termination of the Toll Refining agreement on 6 July 2012. The industrial index eased a marginal 0.03% to 133.78points after gains in Hippo, BAT and Truworths were cancelled off by losses in Econet, Meikles, ZPI and NTS. Hippo added 0.93% to 108c, Truworths recovered 2.56% to 3.6c. Econet was 0.23% weaker at 426c on a paltry volume of 1115 shares; Meikles lost 1.20% to 16.50c while ZPI and NTS eased 4.76% and 6.25% to 1c and 3c respectively. Trading activity was much lighter as volumes declined to 3m from 22.2m while turnover dropped 71% to $409,556. Foreign participation was also subdued at $246,064 for purchases and $16,050 for sales.