Movers & Shakers: August 22, 2012

African Currencies as at GMT 15:30

Botswana: DCI -0.12%, USD 509k

Better day in Botswana today with value traded amounting to USD 509k thanks to a cross of 2.46m Letshego at 140t while the DCI closed the day 0.12% lower at 7,342.57. Primetime (200t, +2t) and RDCP (685t, +3t) were the only names that traded higher while Cresta (100t, -10t) and WIL (290t, -30t) were the only counters to close in negative territory.

Egypt: EGX 30 -0.33%, USD 53m

The market ended the day on a negative note leaving EGX30 to end the day down 0.33% to close at 5161.93 points. Market traded low volumes compared to recent turnover, market traded a total turnover of USD 53m, its worth. The market today opened on a uptick on low volumes to reach a high of 5208.80 points, yet after minutes of trading the market started to witness notable selling to reach a low of 5145.18 points, this was mainly lead by local retail investors along with international institutions. ESRS witnessed notable selling pressure, this came after the name rallied more than 15% in the last 5 sessions, the former ended the day down 2.68% to close at EGP9.07.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 12.49 mn EGP and were 15.81% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 5.96 mn EGP and were 78.16% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Buyers by 6.52 mn EGP and were 6.04% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Buyers by 5.99 mn EGP and were 22.87% of the market.
•  Retail were net Sellers by 5.99 mn EGP and were 77.12% of the market

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.29%, USD 1.93m

Rather quiet today after yesterday's activity with value traded amounting to $1.93m. EABL lead from the front in terms of value traded as 220k shares traded with foreigners dominating both sides of the name (99% of purchases and 98% of sales). Extremely quiet day in Kenya Commercial Bank and Equity Bank with a paltry 294k shares and 88k shares traded in the counters respectively. Locals dominated trading in SCBK as a total of 60k shares traded. Safcom was also very quiet as foreigners accounted for all of the purchases in the name as 2.93m shares traded. Foreigners were net buyers and accounted for $950k of total purchases while they accounted for $710k of total sales. The market closed higher with the NSE 20 Index gaining 0.29% to close at 3,819.45.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.36%, USD 997k

The market closed the day lower with the Semdex falling 0.36% to close at 1,718.66 as both heavy weight banking stocks MCB and SBM came under pressure, both falling 0.61% to close at 163.00 and 82.00 respectively. Value traded improved to USD 997k thanks to a cross of 131.8k shares in NMH at 58.00 with the counter closing unchanged at 58.00. Rogers came under some pressure, falling 1.59% to close at 310.00.

Nigeria: ASI +0.25%, USD 24.04m

After a long weekend due to the Eid celebrations it was good to see some robust activity in Lagos as value traded amounted to $24.04m thanks to a few crosses in the larger stocks. Nigerian Breweries and Guinness were very active thanks to a few crosses in the counters with foreigners showing interest as 11.27m shares and 837k shares respectively traded in the counters. Heavy weight banking stocks Zenith, Guaranty and First Bank were very active as 43m, 21m and 19m shares traded in the names respectively with foreigners showing interest in the counters. The market closed the day higher with the ASI gaining 0.25% to close at 23,199.02. Nigeria plans to increase Bonny Light daily crude exports for October by 49%.

South Africa: Top 40 -0.68%, USD 1.11bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.68% to close at 31,414 while value traded amounted to USD 1.11bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 0.99% followed by Financials and Industrials which fell 0.51% and 0.23% respectively. The Rand was trading at 8.30 and 10.38 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +0.10%, USD 68k

The market managed to close in positive territory with the LuSE gaining 0.10% while value traded amounted to USD 68k. The names that traded included AELZ, CECZ, REIZ, SCBL, ZAIN, ZMBF, ZMFA, ZNCO and ZSUG. ZAIN was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 39k. SCBL was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 14k.

Zimbabwe: Industrial Index -0.60%, Mining Index unch, USD 1.68m

There was a decent improvement in activity today with value traded amounting to a rather pleasing USD 1.68m thanks to a large cross in Delta (2.1m shares) at 68.1c. There was also a fair amount of activity in the likes of DZL and Econet with 280k shares and 11k shares traded respectively. Industrials closed lower for a third consecutive day with the Index falling 0.60% to close at 131.90 while the Mining Index closed unchanged at 89.04 as Falgold was the only counter that traded.