Movers & Shakers: December 03, 2012

African Currencies

Botswana -0.02%, USD 25k

Very quiet start to the week in Gaborone with value traded amounting to USD 25k while the market closed slightly lower with the DCI falling 0.02% to close at 7,567.96. Barclays lead from the front in terms of value traded on a very dull day where there were no names that witnessed any change in prices.

Egypt: EGX 30 -1.43%, USD 37.1m

The Market managed to lose Sunday’s gains as the EGX30 ended the day down 1.43% to close at 4824.56 points. Volumes continue to be poor with institutional investors accounting for more than 39% of the turnover, the market traded a total turnover of EGP227m. Fears continue rise to the peaks from tomorrows protests, as Non-Islamists political powers are calling for marches towards the presidential palace along with civil disobedience and open sit-ins, adding to this President Mohamed Mursi calling for a referendum on the country’s constitution and the judges going on strike declaring that they won’t oversee the referendum process, a sense of malaises has spread over the market as investors continue to worry about the economic and political road ahead of Egypt, yet international and GCC institutions continue to increase their exposure in the market. Names such as ELKA, EFIC and ORTE traded against the general market sentiment, each endi ng the day up 4.65%, 0.80% and 0.29% respectively.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Buyers by 11.87 mn EGP and were 31.54% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Sellers by 18.62 mn EGP and were 61.04% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Buyers by 6.75 mn EGP and were 7.43% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Buyers by 5.72 mn EGP and were 23.12% of the market.
•  Retail were net Sellers by 5.72 mn EGP and were 76.87% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.50%, USD 4.8m

A sluggish start to the new month with selling evident across the board and foreign participation very low. The banking sector in particular took a big smack (-2.52%) with CFC Stanbic (-2.38%, KES 12.60), Equity Bank (-1.08%, KES23) and Kenya Commercial Bank (-90bps, KES27.50) all closed down while National Bank and NIC Bank also closed in the red. EABL was the most active name for the session with a number of crosses going through, EABL closing down 40bps at KES246. Safcom bucked the trend, with strong foreign and local buying evident and the name closed up 1% at KES5.05. Some news out on KNAL (ordered by Industrial Court to reinstate 400 fired workers by 4 Dec 2012) weighed on the name as it closed down 2.52% at KES11.60.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.36%, USD 504k

A rather dull day in Mauritius , especially after 55% of the daily turnover went through just before the close in 2 crosses in MCB. MCB closed the day at Rs161 with the crosses going through at that level. SBM continued its winning streak, closing up for the 5th consecutive day, this time closing up 1.7% at Rs89.50. The only other notable action was on NMH (unch, Rs57) and Terra (unch, Rs38.40).

Nigeria: ASI -0.05%, USD 12.58m

A sluggish start to the final month of 2012 as the slow trend from November continues. The banking sector was dominated by the bears with the BNK10 down 1.39% with most names closing well in the red. The top laggards were UBA (-4.22%, N4.31), Stanbic (-4.93%, N11.19) and Access (-2.90%, N8.70) while a large cross in ETI just after the open dominated turnover on an otherwise lackluster day. The consumer sector fared a lot better, with Guinness (+4.26%, N240) and Nigerian Breweries (+1.23%, N142) all finding buying support from foreign investors.

South Africa: Top 40 -0.22%, USD 1.08bn

Despite global markets being slightly higher we saw the JSE a bit soft, the Top40 closing down 22bps while volumes also somewhat lower than normal. Golds struggled closing down 3.12% which was the main drag on the index. The ZAR held pretty firm against most major currencies, trading at R8.87, R11.58 and R14.27 versus the USD, EUR and GBP respectively.

Zambia: LuSE +1.04%, USD 3.7k

Shockingly quiet day in Lusaka with value traded amounting to a paltry USD 3.7k. The names that traded included BAT, CEC, INV, REIZ, SCZ and ZSUG. CEC was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 2.5k. ZSUG was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 472.

Zimbabwe Industrial -0.54%, Mining -1.29%, USD 590k

Equities opened the last month of the year softer in light trade weighed by banking stocks CBZ and Barclays. The mainstream index lost 0.54% to 149.35points narrowing its YTD gain to 2.39% with four trading weeks before the year ends. Sentiment towards financial stocks remains dampened as they are susceptible to liquidity crisis especially during the festive season. CBZ which experienced a severe liquidity crisis same period last year lost 21.05% to 9c albeit on thin trades widening its YTD losses to 35.71%. Barclays which has experienced sustained selling pressure for the greater part of the year hit another 52-week low of 2.1c after losing 12.50% (YTD loss -51.16%). Most heavy cap stocks trades however were unchanged Delta (93c), Econet (485c), Innscor (69.2c), Hippo (115c) and Old Mutual (165c). Trading activity was thin as volumes dropped 89% to 2m shares while turnover was 40% lower at $0.590m. The mining Index closed the day -1.29% lower at 67.85pts a s Bindura declined 0.10c to 1.4c down 6.67%.All other counters did not trade .Falgold was bid higher at 16cents.