Movers & Shakers: August 23, 2013

Botswana: DCI -0.23%, USD 416k

A decent day in Gaborone thanks to some activity in the normally illiquid Sechaba and Turnstar. Other names that saw some trading action were Letshego (212t), Letlole (176t) and Barclays (580t).

Egypt: Closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.15%, USD 19.0m

There was some serious action in BAT today as foreigners got stuck into the name on both sides in a few very large crosses, as the only way that foreigners can buy BAT in Kenya is from another foreign holder as the counter has already breached the foreign ownership threshold. A total of 2.12m shares traded in the name and closed at KES 575. Turnover surged 163% to $19.0m on the back of these crosses. EABL released FY 2013 results which seemed to please the market ever so slightly with the name gaining 0.98% to close at KES 308. KenolKobil added 1.2% as the oil marketer reported a return to profitability. Foreign investor selling on the counter led the it lower towards the end of the session after an initial excitement.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.42%, USD 748k

A strong day in Port Louis although volumes remain light. The Sem-7 gained 22bps mostly driven higher by ENL Land (+2.27%, Rs45). The only other stock in the Sem-7 to move was Terra (+50bps, Rs40.00).

Nigeria: ASI +0.04%, USD 19.05m

Another day dominated by a couple of chunky crosses as the index crept up by 4bps. The names that saw the lion’s share of this included Wapco, GTB, Glaxosmith and Nestle. The banking sector was neither here nor there today as most names hugged their starting prices. The consumers saw more action and the buyers returned to push the sector higher by 62bps. The main drivers of the outperformance was Flour Mills (+9.98%, N83.90) and Glaxo (+4.62%, N68). Nestle closed unchanged at N935 on good volumes. The cement sector also saw some chunky action in both Wapco (+2.15%, N95) and CCNN (-97bps, N9.21).

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

South Africa: Top 40 -0.06%, USD 1.14bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.06% to close at 38,652 while value traded amounted to USD 1.14bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 0.23% followed by Industrials which fell 0.12% while Financials gained 0.36%. The Rand was trading at 10.20 and 13.66 to the USD and EU respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.41%, Mining +0.19%, USD 2.04m

In the wake of the presidential inauguration ceremony held yesterday in which the presidential elect courted foreign investors on a mutuallys for t beneficial basis, the ZSE held forth adding a marginal 0.41% gain to 183.93pts largely driven by gains of 7.50% in Innscor to close at 86c and Natfoods which closed firmer at 220c a 4.76% upsurge. The president emphasized the need to resuscitate the economy leveraging on the vast expanse of mineral deposits in the country. The minings index also recorded gains of 0.19% to 48.14pts on paltry trades in BNC which was the only active mining counter in the session. Following the previous trading trend other market indicators headed southwards as recent heavy selloffs subsided. Volumes traded aggregated 4.5m shares a downfall of 48.9% with major contribution coming from Econet and CBZ which added 32% apiece. Value traded also took a dip, easing 4.68% to $2.04m augured by Econet and delta who were both top traded stockhe day.

African Currencies