Movers & Shakers: August 15, 2012

African Currencies as at GMT 15:30

Botswana: DCI +0.05%, USD 2.24m

The market closed the day slightly higher with the DCI gaining 0.05% to close at 7,320.41 while value traded amounted to an extremely impressive USD 2.24m thanks to a cross of 2.43m Barclays. Barclays was the only name to close higher on the day (710t, +10t) while there were no counters that closed lower.

Egypt: EGX 30 +0.19%, USD 97m

The market managed to end the day on a positive sentiment lead by local retail investors, leaving the EGX30 to end the day up 0.19% to close at 5,120.25 points Volumes continue to improve notably, market traded a total turnover of USD 97m, its worth mentioning that COMI witnessed huge crosses accounting for more than 24% of the total turnover. The market opened today with a negative sentiment to reach a low of 5082.61 points (-0.20%), after 30min of trading the market started to witness buying appetite lead by local and international institutions lifting the market to reach a high of 5120.50 points, its worth mentioning that international investors ended the day as net-sellers. OCIC witnessed selling pressure today on notably low volumes, the name ended the day down 0.94% on volumes of 55k shares.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 1.44 mn EGP and were 46.40% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 13.79 mn EGP and were 43.22% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Sellers by 12.35 mn EGP and were 10.38% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Buyers by 72.49 mn EGP and were 56.26% of the market.
•  Retail were net Sellers by 72.49 mn EGP and were 43.7%3 of the market

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.02%, USD 2.41m

Despite a small increase in volumes, overall activity in Nairobi remains muted ahead of the public holiday next Monday. The NSE20 ticked up marginally while the broader NSE ASI closed down 7bps. Foreign activity was also subdued with foreign buying just 47.7% of the total buys while foreign selling didn’t even reach 20%. Bamburi saw some early action with a cross at the KES175 level and Scan also witnessed foreign participation with both names among the most active in the market. As always, banks saw a lot of the focus, EqBnk closing down 1.16% at KES21.25 while KNCB remained unchanged at KES25.00.

Mauritius: Closed for the day.

Nigeria: ASI -0.09%, USD 10.29m

Activity remains light in Lagos ahead of the 2 day public holiday next week (Monday and Tuesday). As has been the case recently, banking stocks dominate trading volumes, accounting for almost 75% of the days vols. The BNK10 closed down 16bps with Diamond (-3.4%) and Skyebank (-3.61%) leading the fall. First Bank bucked the trend and was the only Tier 1 bank closing in the black, closing up 2.23% at N12.37 on good volume. Outside of the banking, the only real action was in NB, which closed up marginally at N120.35 on decent trading.

South Africa: Top 40 -0.03%, USD 1.31bn

The JSE ended the day slightly lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.03% to close at 31,332 while value traded amounted to USD 1.31bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 1.14% followed by Financials which fell 0.67% while Industrials gained 0.54%. The Rand was trading at 8.22 and 10.09 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE -0.06%, USD 143k

Much better day today thanks to crosses in ZAIN and ZSUG with value traded amounting to USD 143k. The names that traded included BATZ, CECZ, PUMA, REIZ, ZAIN, ZMFA, ZNCO and ZSUG. ZAIN was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 82k. ZSUG was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 59k.

Zimbabwe: Industrial Index +0.43%, Mining Index unch, USD 583k

Rather quiet day in Harare after two consecutive public holidays with value traded amounting to 583k. The Industrial Index managed to gain 0.43% to close at 133.76on the back of gains in Natfoods, OK Zim and Seedco. There were crosses in the likes of Seedco, Econet and Innscor. Exceptionally dull in the Mining Sector with no trades being recorded.