Movers & Shakers: February 03, 2014

Botswana: DCI unch, USD 64k

Not much on the go in Gaborone today as value traded amounting to USD 64k with Choppies accounting for the bulk of the action.

Egypt: EGX 30 -0.37%, USD 105m

The market witnessed some profit taking today lead by international and local institutions, leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 37bps. The market continued to trade healthy volumes, with a total turnover of EGP736 million. Retail investors were also active and accounted for more than 80% of total turnover, targeting mostly small/mid-caps with name such as EGTS, ACGC and PHDC each ending the day down 3.25%, 0.63% and 1.60% respectively. GCC investors along with local retail investors( who started the day as net-sellers) supported the market as net buyers today, targeting names such as OTMT(+1.69%), ETEL(+0.40%) and AMER(+2.54%).

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.57%, USD 8.2m

The NSE opened on a solid note and despite foreign buying the market ticked down throughout the day and eventually closed a disappointing 57bps lower. However, Safcom and EABL bounced back after last week’s softness and gained 1.8% and 2.7% to KES 11.20 and KES 266 respectively. The major banks remain vulnerable as we saw Equity Bank lose 4% to KES 29.75 and KNCB lose 1.7% to KES 42.50. Overall foreign activity was much improved than in recent weeks.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.60%, USD 2.21m

Active start to the week in Port Louis as value traded amounted to USD 2.21m thanks to some action in MCB as 119k shares traded with the name falling -0.24% to close at Rs207.50. There was also some activity in SBM (-0.97%) as 9.18m shares changed hands. The normally illiquid CFS was very active today as 2.2m shares traded.

Nigeria: ASI +1.96%, USD 34.06m

Local investors still playing a large role on the NSE and chunky crosses still punctuate the landscape. The ASI was incredibly strong as aggressive buyers returned in both the banks (+2.24%) and consumers (+49bps). Banks were led higher by strength across the Tier 1 names, most notably UBA (+4.17%, N8.50), FBNH (+3.67%, N14.98) and Access (+3.3%, N9.40). Zenith Bank saw a chunky cross early in the session and closed up 86bps at N23.50 as more than $10m changed hands. Consumers were mildly strong led higher by decent volumes in Nestle (+44bps, N1130) and NB (+96bps, N158). Oando again saw some chunky trading (+10%, N21.11) after the announcement that a loan had been granted to purchase ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian operations.

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

South Africa: Top 40 -0.38%, USD 1.17bn

The JSE continues to struggle on the back of Emerging Markets weakness. The Rand remains range bound and was trading at R11.23, R18.37 and R15.18 respectively at the time of writing..

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.55%, Mining unch, USD 1.98m

A third straight day of gains for the Harare bourse. The buying returned to the market heavyweights as we saw gains in Delta (+2%, 121c, Econet (+40bps, 60.52c) and Innscor (+10bps, 75.1c). Foreign activity still remains lower than normal.

African Currencies