Movers & Shakers: August 26, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.52%, USD 756k

A cross in WIL (2.25m shares) accounted for 75% of activity on an otherwise dull day as total value traded amounted to USD 756k. There was also a little bit of action in FNB as 391k shares traded.

Egypt: EGX 30 -0.44%, USD 48m

The market traded with a mixed sentiment today to end the day in lower, leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 0.44% to close 5,448.99 points. The market continues to trade weak volume’s yet a slight improvement yesterday’s volumes, the market traded a total turnover of USD 48m. The market started the day with a positive sentiment with local institutions along with local retail as net buyers lifting the market to reach a high of 5,483.74 points targeting names such as EFIC(+1.16%), OCDI(+0.47%) and PIOH(1.46%) yet after an hour of trading international institutions managed to pressure the market to trade in the reds, targeting names such as HRHO, ETEL and TMGH each ending the down 1.29%, 1.01% and 0.98% respectively.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.31%, USD 11.4m

Another active day in Nairobi although foreign participation was lower than in previous sessions. Equity Bank accounted for almost half the day’s turnover with some chunky crossing (local selling and predominantly foreign buying) with the name closing unchanged at KES 34.50. Safcom (unch, KES 7.90), EABL (+60bps, KES 310) and KNCB (-60bps, KES 44.75) also saw decent trading with mostly foreign buying and local selling.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.31%, USD 1.13m

Cim Financial Services yet again dominated activity as a total of 992k shares traded in the name with the counter gaining a very impressive 3.7%. There was also a large cross of 100k shares in Terra. The two major banking stocks were rather quiet as 13k MCB (+0.13%) traded while 1.09m SBM (unch) changed hands. Total activity was robust as value traded amounted to USD 1.13m.

Nigeria: ASI -0.14%, USD 14.9m

An extremely quiet day in Lagos with just some crosses in Dangote Cement about the only thing happening. The name closed up 1.06% at N190 on big volumes. The banks lost 1.29% but on extremely dire volumes so again it is difficult to gauge true conviction. The weakness was evenly spread across both Tier 1 and Tier 2 names with no gainers in the sector. Consumers lost 16bps with the only name that really traded being NB which closed down 30bps at N167. The rest of the sector was very dull.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +0.65%, USD 695m

A strong day in Johannesburg as the index continued to ramp higher despite the woeful volumes due to the UK Bank holiday weekend. The ZAR remains on the back foot though and was trading at R10.26, R15.99 and R 13.72 respectively at the time of writing.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.20%, Mining unch, USD 590k

The ZSE Industrials fell -0.20% on the first trading day of the week to close at 183.53pts while the mining index closed unchanged at 48.05pts in a thinly traded session. The total active stocks numbered 23 counters in which 2 risers emerged, 4 lost and 17 were unchanged. Funds directed to the market plummeted -71.2% to $0.59m as market uneasiness kept foreign investors at bay with buys coming off -99.1% to $0.01m and sales down -86.3% to $0.18mn. An outflow position of 0.17m was registered. However, volumes were +10.8% up to 5mn shares boosted by a block of 2.7mn Mash that changed hands at 2.91c. Delta fell -0.7% to close at 111.01c with firm bids showing at 111c. Similarly Econet which is nearing its August half year ending period dropped -0.7% to 49.65c and ended with a tight bid-ask spread of 49.50c - 50c.

African Currencies