Movers & Shakers: February 20, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.13%, USD 98k

Diabolical day yet again in Gaborone as less than $100k traded. The top traded stock was actually ABCH while some small activity took place in FNBB while only small scraps traded in a couple of other names.

Egypt: EGX -0.24%, USD 47m

The market continued with its bearish sentiment today lead by notable selling form retail investors after being net buyers for last couple of sessions, the EGX30 ended the day down 0.24% to close at 5,609.32 points. The market continues to trade weak volumes, the market traded a total turnover of USD 47m. The market traded the day with a negative sentiment with ongoing political distress leaving local retail investors worried about the ongoing economical woes on Egypt, names such as OCDI, PIOH and ACGC witnessed notable selling today each ending the day down 2.71%, 2.60% and 1.72% respectively. COMI managed to trade against the market sentiment on above average volumes, this comes after the bank posted another strong quarter, with NIMs, interest income, and operating income (but not net income, on aggressive provisioning) reaching record levels, the former ended the day up 0.91%.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Buyers by 37.25 mn EGP and were 30.14% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Sellers by 25.50 mn EGP and were 62.63% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Sellers by 11.75 mn EGP and were 7.23% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Buyers by 22.37 mn EGP and were 41.53% of the market.
•  Retail were net Sellers by 22.37 mn EGP and were 58.46% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 -1.06%, USD 9.3m

The equities market witnessed is biggest one day decline this year, with the NSE 20 index easing 1.06% to close at 4,502.75 points. Profit taking across large cap counters continued to weigh negatively on the market. Equity turnover climbed 4.6%, with foreign investor participation climbing to 67% of trades. Safaricom was the day’s top mover accounting for 44.4% of volumes, with foreign investors trading actively on both sides of the counter. Despite strong foreign investor demand EABL continued to ease, sliding 1.4% to KES 273. KCB,-0.7%, also continued to see profit taking mainly driven by local investor trading. The bank is set to announce its FY12 performance figures 28 th February. After announcing a 8.8% y/y rise in FY12 EPS to KES 6.03 and an 100% rise in DPS to KES 1, NIC Bank climbed 0.6% to KES 45.50. BOC led the top gainers list climbing 5% to KES 105 though on thin volumes. On the losing end Centum and Bamburi witnessed prof it taking, pulling back 7.8% and 7.3% to KES 13.65 and KES 204 respectively.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.45%, USD 2.9m

A strong day in Mauritius with the 2 major banks leading the charge. MCB (+55bps, Rs182) and SBM (+2%, Rs102) both performed well on decent volumes, but by far the most active stock was NMH which traded some chunky volumes yet closed down a disappointing 2.07% at Rs71. The rest of the Sem-7 was mixed with Alteo closing down 29bps while Terra (+1.28%) and Bramer Banking (+3.52%) both had good days.

Nigeria: ASI +1.12%, USD 27.2m

A bullish day for Lagos with some aggressive buying in Nestle the real outlier as an aggressive buyer pushed the price to almost N1000! Most of the day was characterized by the lack of a feed from the NSE to Bloomberg making watching the market difficult. Banks were mixed with the BNK10 closing down 11bps. Consumers names continue to be popular with the buyers, Nestle (+7.8%, N981), Cadbury (+4.06%, N40.8) and NB (+4.93%, N169.99) all having good days on decent volumes. Guinness was the opposite though, closing down 1.79% at N275 on very good volumes. Nestle posted full-year 2012 results which saw PAT increase 28.13%.

South Africa: Top 40 -0.84%, USD 1.44bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.84% to close at 36,022 while value traded amounted to USD 1.44bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 2.64% followed by Financials which fell 0.30% while Industrials gained 0.21%. The Rand was trading at 8.87 and 11.87 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE -0.04%, USD 507k

A cross in Zambia Sugar accounted for almost 100% of the daily turnover in Lusaka. Other names in the market barely trade scraps. The only stocks that moved were CEC (-1.20%) and SCZ (-0.95%).

Zimbabwe: Inudsutrials +2.15%, Mining unch, USD $1.23m

ZSE heavy weights rallied in mid week trades driving the main stream industrial index +2.15% and closing at an all time high of 186.67pts. Heavy cap gains in SeedCO, Delta, and Innscor drove the market gains. The session saw an improvement in activity as twenty five stocks traded compared to seventeen yesterday were active from which the value of trades slightly more than doubled to $1.23m relative to yesterday. The volume of shares traded only saw an 11% increase to 6.7m shares as activity was confined to the large cap stocks. Foreign participation also got a boost with the purchases almost double yesterday’s tally a $0.66m while sales surged 244% to $0.41m leaving the balance of payments in a net inflow position of $0.25m. Delta (39%), Innscor (17%), Econet (16%) and SeedCO (7%) top traded for the day accounting for an estimated combined 79% of the total value of trades. The mining index was flat at 81.28pts as only RioZim saw trades though it remained flat at 50c.

African Currencies