Movers & Shakers: December 19, 2012

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.94%, USD 5.7m

Another vibrant day in Nairobi with foreign investors driving volumes and performance. A solid $5.7m changed hands while the NSE20 closed up an impressive 94bps (now +28.7% YTD). EABL was the most active on the day accounting for 28% of the session’s turnover, closing unchanged at KES260, foreign investors heavily skewed to the buy side. NMG (-1.4%, KES217) was also active with both sides entirely locally driven. Strong foreign buying was also evident in Safcom, KNCB, Scangroup, BATK and Uchumi.

Nigeria: ASI -0.32%, USD 15.37m

The Nigeria session opened on a sparkling note with a number of crosses going through. Thereafter it ground to a halt and trudged slowly along until the close. Despite UBA closing down 4.22% at N4.31, the banking sector had a good day (+1.18%). GTB (+4.4%, N21.10) and Diamond (+1.51%, N4.70) were the main drivers behind the outperformance. The consumer sector witnessed profit taking across the board. Guinness (-2.31%, N254), Nigerian Breweries (-3.13%, N155) and Nestle (-1.43%, N690) all closed in the red on good volumes.

Zimbabwe: Ind +0.35%, Mining -2.75%, USD 1.7m

Mid week trades saw the industrial index close firmer helped by gains in Delta, TN Bank, Old Mutual, Meikles and Zimplow. The mainstream index was 35bps firmer at 148.12pts in the best trading session this week that saw total turnover enhanced to $1.7m. Econet and Delta boosted the turnover by contributing $574,085(34%) and $758,771(45%) respectively while international financial services giant Old Mutual also put in $196,770 to the value traded. There was much improved foreign participation with foreign purchasers coming in at $1.384 m which was 81% of turnover. The favorite picks were Inscor, Delta and Econet. The foreigners also disposed of Econet shares worth $500,350. Nine counters gained whilst seven others traded in the negative. Of the best performers, Interfresh led the risers with a +100% surge to 0.20c, Willdale rose +25% to settle at 0.05c, TN Bank pushed up +20% to 19.2c and NMBZ upped +7.69% to 0.55c. Turnall was the worst performing counter of the day easing -11.11% to 4c and is now -60% YTD. Fidelity retreated -4.17% to 11.5c while Afre dropped -1.89% to close at 5.2c. The mining index eased - 2.75% to 63.41pts after Rio Zim and Hwange slumped -5.45% to 52c and -2.86% to 17c respectively. Falgold remained stable whilst Bindura inched up +7.69% to 1.4c though this failed to mitigate losses on the index.