Movers & Shakers: February 14, 2014

Botswana: DCI -0.03%, USD 17k

From bad to worse in Gaborone in terms of activity as value traded amounted to a paltry USD 17k.

Egypt: Closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.02%, USD 4.4m

It was a rather dull end to the week in Nairobi as value traded amounted to $4.4m with foreigners remaining net sellers. EABL fell 2.4% after releasing H1 2014 results before the open which saw EPS increase by 5.2%. EABL also drove the market in terms of activity with foreigners selling the counter. There was a fair amount of activity in SCAN as 1.55m shares traded with foreigners dominating both sides. Kenya Commerdcial Bank closed flat at KES 45.75 as locals accounted for nearly all of the purchases.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.05%, USD 707k

Not much on the go in Port Louis today as value traded amounted to a very dull USD 707k. A cross in SBM (unch) drove activity while there was a very small amount of action in MCB (+0.24%) and Alteo (unch).

Nigeria: ASI -1.55%, USD 30.4m

The blood bath in banking stocks continued today as the Bank Index fell -3.62% with UBA (-8.68%), Guaranty Trust Bank (-4.99%) and ETI (-3.45%) being amongst the worst performers. The weakness in the banking sector spilt over to consumers with the Consumer Index falling -1.76% as the brewerers dragged the sector lower with Guinness (-4.99%), IntBrew (-4.69%) and Nigerian Breweries (-2.41%) taking strain. Activity was decent for a Friday as value traded amounted to $30.4m with Zenith ($5.39m), Guaranty ($4.35m) and Nestle ($2.25m) leading the way.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +0.87%, USD 1.34bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.87% to close at 42,093 while value traded amounted to USD 1.34bn. Resources were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 1.49% followed by Industrials and Financials which gained 0.59% and 0.56% respectively. The Rand was trading at 10.87 and 14.87 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.27%, Mining unch, USD 270k

The mainstream index softened 0.27% to 188.99pts in an unusually quite session. The bourse has been losing points in all successive sessions in the week against low sentiment in the economy and an expectation of lukewarm financials as we get deeper into the reporting season. So far only Afdis, Barclays and TSL have reported their 2013 numbers exhibiting strong performance in their respective sectors. The three companies however amongst the exceptions that were expected to impress owing to their robust respective business models. All have seen minimal movements on the ZSE post results release. Dragging the industrials were heavy caps Econet and OK which both surrendered prior session gains to 62c and 19.5c respectively. The minings on the other hand stuttered holding on a previous close of 33.61 pts. Only Bindura, among the mining stocks recorded trades at its previous price of 1.3c.

African Currencies