Movers & Shakers: August 19, 2013

Botswana: DCI -0.01%, USD 20k

Rather dire start to the week as value traded amounted to USD 20k with Choppies accounting for 70% of turnover today.

Egypt: EGX 30 -0.10%, USD 36m

The market traded with a mixed sentiment today to end the day in slightly higher, leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 0.10% to close 5,329.19 points. Market volumes were notably low relative to recent turnovers, the market traded a total turnover of USD 36m. The market traded a the day with notable selling but with less selling momentum compared to yesterday session, were most blue chips managed to last print higher than yesterday’s close(vwap). international institutions continue to pressure to end the day as the sole net-sellers targeting names ETEL, ORTE and HRHO each ending the day down 1.31%, 1.15% and 0.36% respectively. Local investors both institutional and retail continue to be bullish towards the market to end the day as net buyers targeting names such as AMER, OCDI and ESRS each ending the day up 2.00%, 1.76% and 1.46% respectively.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.18%, USD 6.4m

It was a solid start to the week in Nairobi from an activity point of view with value traded amounting to $6.4m thanks to some good volume in Safcom (32.4% of turnover) driven by foreign participation as the name continues to grind higher and closed at KES 8.15. The two major banking stocks experienced mixed fortunes today with Equity Bank gaining 0.7% while Kenya Commercial Bank fell 0.6% with solid volumes in both names as foreigners were prevalant. EABL slid 1.8% to close at KES 321, with the brewer recently issuing a profit warning and is due to report FY 2013 numbers on Friday the 23rd.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.36%, USD 673k

The market continued where it left off last week with the Semdex gaining a very pleasing 0.36%. The move higher came on the back of SBM which managed to close at 1.06 as 6.49m shares changed hands in the name. MCB drove turnover (44.5%) as a total of 48k shares traded in the counter. Foreign interest continued to return to the market as they accounted for 80% of purchases today.

Nigeria: ASI -0.45%, USD 15.56m

It was a very slow start to the week in Lagos as there were some technical issues early in the session with Bloomberg not receiving live price feeds. The only cross worth noting was that of 2.4m NB at 166 towards the end of the session. Consumers pulled the market lower with the Consumer Goods Index falling -0.48% with the likes of UACN (-4.67%) and Guinness (-2.64%) taking strain while Flour Mills closed -2.55% lower as a result of going ex-div. Banks were also softer today with the Bank 10 Index falling -0.44% thanks to second-tier banks coming under pressure with Skye Bank falling -3.46%.

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

South Africa: Top 40 -0.34%, USD 1.16bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.34% to close at 38,493 while value traded amounted to USD 1.16bn. Financials were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 0.94% followed by Resources and Industrials which fell 0.36% and 0.08% respectively. The Rand was trading at 10.17 and 13.57 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +0.39%, USD 406k

There was finally something to write home about (relatively speaking) in Lusaka today as value traded amounted to USD 406k thanks to a cross in CEC ($307k). There was also some action in Zanaco as value traded in the name amounted to USD 76k.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -1.54%, Mining unch, USD 670k

The market weakened further on the first day of the trading week ahead of the anticipated inauguration of the president elect later this year. Weighing heavily on the market was Econet which slipped -3.8% to 51c and ending sellers as the tariff wars in the telecoms sector scaled new highs while Delta lost -0.9% to 114c on sustained selling. Retailers OK weakened -9.1% to 20c on weak demand which culminated in a paltry $338 worth of trades. Bankers Barclays whose indigenization plan has been dogged by uncertainty as to approval was down -5% to 3.8c. Today’s performance resulted in industrials shedding -1.54% to 185.07c while minings were unchanged at 48.05pts with a singular trade in Bindura at previous price of 1.8c. Total value for the day slumped 95.6% to $0.67m on depressed foreign buying that declined -99.75% to $0.03m. In other news inflation for July fell 0.62 percentage points to 1.25% from 1.87% in June as a result of the constant drop in the aggregate demand.

African Currencies