Movers & Shakers: February 03, 2014

Botswana: DCI -0.38%, USD 1.36m

Activity increased as value traded amounted to USD 1.36m thanks to a cross of 3m Choppies as the name accounted for 98% of turnover.

Egypt: EGX 30 +0.97%, USD 135m

The market managed to pick up its bullish momentum leaving the EGX30 to end the day up 0.97% to close at 7,571.35 points. Market volumes improved compared to recent turnovers as the market traded a total turnover of USD 135. The market managed to pick up some bullish momentum lead by institutional buying (local and international) targeting names ESRS (+1.99%), COMI (+1.43%), and GTHE (+0.99%). COMI released 4Q2013 results with resilient margins and lower tax charge helping profitability despite COR hike. While lending growth continued to be weak, we upgraded our FV to EGP45.00 with a Buy recommendation. Local retail investors continued to be net sellers in the market, targeting names such as AMER, PHDC, and AIND each ending the day down 0.81%, 0.62% and 0.57% respectively.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.18%, USD 9.7m

Activity tapered off slightly today as value traded amounted to $9.7m with foreigners accounting for 56.5% of total sales while local investors dominated total activity and accounted for 54.3%. Banks had another good day on the back of local investor purchases with the big names closing higher. The usually illiquid ARM was rather active today thanks to foreign purchases in a decent block. EABL (-1.9%) continued to come under pressure ahead of H1 2014 results which are due on Friday.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.80%, USD 1.5m

Some aggressive buying in MCB pushed the name higher by 1.44% to Rs212. The index rose as a result of this as well as a gain in Terra (+83bps, Rs36.50) with only a small loss in ENL Land (-21bps), Rs47.25.

Nigeria: ASI -0.43%, USD 37m

Don’t be fooled by the volumes as not much was happening throughout a dull session. A large cross in DangCem early in the session accounted for a shade under half the total turnover – the name closed down 34bps at N238.96. The banks were mostly quiet throughout the day as the sector lost a further 59bps. There were some crosses in FBNH (unch, N14.20), GTB (-36bps, N27.40) and Zenith (-1.37%, N20.95). Consumers lost 69bps on really thin volumes with only NB (-1.58%, N149.79) experiencing any reasonable trading activity.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +1.33%, USD 1.68bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 1.33% to close at 41,848 while value traded amounted to USD 1.68bn. Resources were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 2.16% followed by Financials and Industrials which gained 1.81% and 0.62% respectively. The Rand was trading at 10.97 and 14.91 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.59%, Mining unch, USD 320k

Volumes remain scarily low in Harare as general indecisiveness reigns. There really isn’t much to write home about as we saw mild weakness in Delta (-80bps, 124.95c) and Innscor (-1.3%, 75c). Econet remains stable at 61c.

African Currencies