Movers & Shakers: August 15, 2013

Botswana: DCI -0.08%, USD 62k

Another day, another dull day in Botswana. In the absence of any chunky crossing the Botswana market never gets going. The most active name today was Sechaba which closed at 1756t.

Egypt: Closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.28%, USD 5.4m

Turnover dropped considerably today after yesterday's cross in NMG with value traded amounting to $5.4m. Foreign demand was strong in Safcom as the name accounted for 29% of volume and managed to close the day 1.9% higher at a new 12-month high of KES 7.90. There was also strong foreign demand in Equity Bank with a cross of 1m shares right at the close of the session with the counter gianing 2.2% to close at KES 34.75. CFC Stanbic continued to rally after posting impressive H1 2013 results and closed at KES 72.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.40%, USD 2.6m

A very active day in Mauritius as some chunky trading in SBM raised volumes to very high levels. The Sem-7 gained 60bps with only positive movers in the sector. SBM gained 1% to Rs1.03 while the other gainers were MCB (+50bps, Rs191), NMH (+1.1%, Rs67) and ENL Land (+70bps, Rs42.80).

Nigeria: ASI +0.01%, USD 31.41m

Nigeria arrested the recent weakness with banks in particular (+58bps) seeing the buyers returning. The Tier 1 banks were the strongest with UBA (+3.56%, N7.85) and FBNH (+3.23%, N16.62) the leading lights in the sector. A massive cross in NB at N166.55 (both sides foreign) was the main action on the day as the name eventually closed up 54bps at N167.90. The consumers closed down 6bps for the day, mostly due to weakness in Cadbury (-7.43%, N48.31), Flour Mills (-8.97%, N78.56) and PZ (-6.42%, N37.60). These losses were offset by solid gains in Guinness (+6.85%, N265), UACN (+8.56%, N61.89) and Unilever (+3.09%, N65). The only Cement name that saw any action was Wapco which closed down 3.98% at N94.10.

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

South Africa: Top 40 -1.23%, USD 1.25bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 1.23% to close at 38,089 while value traded amounted to USD 1.25bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 1.54% followed by Financials and Industrials which fell 1.13% and 1.05% respectively. The Rand was trading at 9.99 and 13.25 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Inudsutrials -0.40%, Mining unch, USD 2.0m

The ZSE posted a marginal loss in today’s trades after a two day heroes and defence forces holidays where the President elect vowed to indigenise the economy in a bid to empower the locals and revive the economy. The political situation remains fragile amid policy uncertainties that have catapulted capital flight on the bourse and simultaneously precipitated industrials decline. In today’s session industrials lost 0.4% to 190.34pts extending the losing run to 8 sessions. A 0.88% recovery in Delta to 115c failed to mitigate losses suffered in fellow giants innscor which eased 0.25% to 80c and Old Mutual’s -2.04% drop to 235c. The minings closed unchanged at previous levels with only Bindura registering trades at previous closing price. Aggregate demand sharply weakened 37% to $2m that exchanged hands today sustained renewed local demand as foreign inflows fell -67.71% to $0.6m while outflows fell 73% to $0.7m. Delta was however the largest contributor to values adding 41% to the value traded. Volumes likewise eased 9% to 8.9m shares being augured by a block in CBZH.

African Currencies