Movers & Shakers: December 10, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.01%, USD 26k

Nothing on the go in Gaborone as value traded amounted to a dire USD 26k.

Egypt: EGX 30 -0.11%, USD 42m

The market managed to see some minor profit booking, leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 0.11% to close 6,461.32 points. Market volumes remained weak relative to recent average market turnovers, trading a total turnover of USD 42m. The market continued to trade in the reds on very little momentum mainly lead by institutional investors (international) targeting names such as COMI, OTMT and ETEL, each ending the day down 0.69%, 1.41%, and 0.44% respectively. Local investors (institutions and retail) continued to be net buyers in the market, targeting names such as OCDI, EFIC, and ESRS, with each ending the day up 2.11%, 0.54%, and 0.83% respectively.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.52%, USD 12.9m

Activity took a big jump in Nairobi today as value traded amounted to $12.9m as foreign participation increased to 67%. Kenya Commercial Bank drove activity as foreigners remained net sellers in the bank with the counter falling -0.60% to close at KES 44.50 on 6.19m shares. EABL (-3.0%) continued to come under pressure with foreign selling driving the brewer down as the name closed at KES 290. Foreign investors (both buy and sell) drove proceedings in Safcom as 23.96m shares traded in the telco.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.30%, USD 672k

A quiet day in Port Louis with gains driven exclusively by a solid +1.80% in NMH. The name closed at Rs84.75 while all other names in the Sem-7 closed unchanged.

Nigeria: ASI +0.55%, USD 20.6m

The session followed suit with the previous couple of sessions in that nothing much happened except for the odd cross. Today we saw some chunky crossing in Nestle (-3.84%, N1129.90) and Unity Bank (-3.77%, N0.51) while there was also decent activity in Zenith Bank (-9bps, N21.37) and Guaranty (+26bps, N27). Banks were soft overall and the sector closed down 46bps for the day with Zenith, ETI (-2.67%, N14.60) and FCMB (-2.65%, N3.30) dragging down the sector. Consumers were unchanged with the softness in Nestle and Flourmills (-7.32%, N85.08) offset by gains in Cadbury (+2.71%, N63.68) and NB (+3.64%, N167). Transcor continues to see big activity yet closed the day down 5.48% at N3.97.

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

South Africa: Top 40 -0.23%, USD 1.16bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.23% to close at 39,934 while value traded amounted to USD 1.16bn. Financials were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 0.37% followed by Industrials and Resources which fell 0.24% and 0.13% respectively. The Rand was trading at 10.32 and 14.26 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.31%, Mining unch, USD 4.53m

The equities market weakened further in today’s session paring 0.31% to close at 208.94 pts. Heavy caps continue weighing down the market with TSL easing 5.4% to 35c while OK softened 0.91% to 21.8c. The ZSE’s gravitation has heightened in the wake of a delayed national budget presentation amid acute liquidity constraints in the broad economy. The press however reported today that the minister of finance will present the 2014 budget next Thursday amid great probability that the economy will remain on a cash budget. Econet was the top traded counter spurning over $5m shares worth $3.2m. The telecoms company was stable at 63c and was once again the top traded counter by value on the ZSE together with Delta.

African Currencies