Movers & Shakers: August 29, 2012

African Currencies

Botswana: DCI +0.14%, USD 206k

The market in Gaborone was active in terms of number of stocks that traded, 11. The activity was spread around more so than usual with Primetime, FNBB, BIHL and Sechaba (in that order) all making decent contributions. There was only one price change, BIHL +2t to close at 1022t.

Egypt: EGX 30 -0.32%, USD 84m

The market ended the day on a negative sentiment on average volumes, leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 0.32% to close at 5,308.38 points. Market volumes continue to improve relative to recent market volumes, market traded a total turnover of USD 84m. Market started trading with a positive sentiment to reach a high of 5347.40 points lead by local retail investors along with local institutions this was mainly attributed to the a sign of good news out of China following President Mursi's visit with the latter agreeing to lend Egypt USD200mn. By med-session international institutions along with GCC retail investors stepped in and pressured the market to reach a low of 5302.08 points. Names such as JUFO, ETEL and COMI traded against the general sentiment, each ending the day up 1.08%, 0.72% and 0.17% respectively.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 4.54 mn EGP and were 20.33% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 20.69 mn EGP and were 66.92% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Sellers by 16.14 mn EGP and were 12.76% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Buyers by 15.84 mn EGP and were 27.37% of the market.
•  Retail were net Sellers by 15.84 mn EGP and were 72.62% of the market

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.93%, USD 4.03m

Rather active in Nairobi with value traded amounting to $4.03m. British American lead from the front in terms of value traded thanks to a large cross with the buyer and seller being local as value traded in the counter amounted to $1.55m. There was a decent amount of activity in BATK with foreigners accounting for all of the purchases as a cross of 144k shares took place. There was a cross early in the session in Equity Bank which helped drive activity in the name as a total of 1.54m shares changed hands throughout the day. Foreigners were net buyers and accounted for $1.35m of total purchases while they accounted for $740k of total sales. The market ended the day higher with the NSE 20 Index gaining 0.93% to close at 3,878.13.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.26%, USD 1.45m

The Mauritian market struggled again today, losing -0.26%, driven by losses in MCB and Terra. The only two price movers from the Sem-7 were the bank MCB falling -0.62% to close at 162.00 while Terra closed the session -0.51% worse off at 39.00. Rogers (the conglomerate) dominated the activity again with crosses the order of the day. MCB was also a big contributor to the activity levels. From the hoteliers NMH traded flat at 56.00 while Sun Resorts and Constance Hotels took a beating -3.01% and -4.78% closing at 29.00 and 23.9 respectively.

Nigeria: ASI +0.59%, USD 7.6m

An incredibly slow session today with the Lagos bourse failing to get close to breaching the $10m mark although the market did manage to advance +0.59% with the top tier banks leading the way, all in the black. The bank10 closed +0.94% stronger. FBN, UBA and Access were the outperformers after closing with gains of +1.96%, +1.37% and 1.3% respectively. The cement sector had a strong day, while the conglomerates and food & bev sectors saw mixed fortunes. Flourmills, +2.88%, DangS -0.47% and Nestle +4.75%. The highest value of trades were in GTB, FBN, Zenith, Access and Flourmills. 25 stocks advanced, 16 declined and 66 remained unchanged.

South Africa: Top 40 -0.09%, USD 1.26bn

The JSE ended the day slightly lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.09% to close at 31,492 while value traded amounted to USD 1.26bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 0.97% while Industrials and Financials gained 0.53% and 0.08% respectively. The Rand was trading at 8.41 and 10.53 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE -1.01%, USD 99k

Fairly decent day with value traded amounting to USD 99k thanks to a cross in ZAIN. The names that traded included AELZ, BATZ, CECZ, PUMA, SCBL, ZNCO and ZSUG. ZAIN was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 92k. ZSUG was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 3k.

Zimbabwe: Industrial Index +0.50%, Mining Index unch, USD 886k

The industrial index traded firm for the second session spurred by Delta and Econet although activity remains depressed. Volumes improved slightly $885,660. Foreigners were quite active accounting for 59% of market activity with Econet, Delta, Old mutual and Innscor emerging as the favourite stocks. The industrial index rose 0.50% to settle at 131.62points while the mining index remained stuck at 89.04points with no activity. Delta edged 1.45% or 1c to 70c as foreign appetite remains strong while Econet rose 0.67% to 418c on a solid volume of 101 678 shares valued at $425,000 (48% of market turnover). African sun and AICO were the only stocks to trade in the negative. African sun eased 18.37% to 0.8c on profit taking while AICO pared 5.56% to 8.5c. Seedco was bid and offer at 83c and 86c respectively ahead of its AGM this afternoon. Giving a trading update, CE Morgan Nzvere noted that the group managed to reduce its outstanding debtors from $43.7m to $29m with Zimbabwe at $17.8m still constituting the bulk of outstanding debtors. He further noted that weak demand for winter serials saw the winter volumes underperforming previous years by half.