Movers & Shakers: February 21, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.03%, USD 300k

A big day in Botswana terms with $300k changing hands, almost entirely on the back of some action in Choppies, which closed at 237t. Virtually nothing else traded in the market.

Egypt: EGX +0.31%, USD 42m

The market traded with a mixed sentiment today to end the day in positive territory, leaving the EGX30 to end the day up 0.31% to close 5626.92 points. The market continues to trade weak volumes compared to average turnover, the market traded a total turnover of USD 42m. With the ongoing political tension the country is now facing alongside the continuous lack of a catalyst the market started the day with a negative sentiment to reach a low of 5587.73 points with local retail as notable sellers in the market, yet after 30min of trading international institutional investors turned to be buyers lifting the market to trade in the greens, targeting names such as OTMT, ORTE and OCIC each ending the day up 1.64%, 1.17% and 0.76% respectively.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Buyers by 15.19 mn EGP and were 36.45% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Sellers by 8.38 mn EGP and were 57.81% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Sellers by 6.80 mn EGP and were 5.74% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Buyers by 6.18 mn EGP and were 44.92% of the market.
•  Retail were net Sellers by 6.18 mn EGP and were 55.07% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.06%, USD 10.1m

The equities market witnessed some reprieve today with the NSE 20 index slightly gaining 0.06%, reversing the bearish trend it has seen over the past few trading sessions. Equity turnover rose 8.7%, due to increased foreign investor net flows at USD 2.94m and overall participation at 66% of trades. EABL was the day’s top mover accounting for 46% of volumes, with foreign investors being net buyers on the counter. The brewer recouped some of the losses it had made in previous sessions climbing 1.5% to KES 277. Of the top movers Safaricom, BAT, Equity Bank and Bamburi witnessed strong foreign investor demand at over 90% of the counters trades. Bamburi reversed some of the losses it made yesterday climbing 4.9% to KES 214. After posting a 57 y/y jump in FY12 EPS, Pan Africa insurance edged up 4.4% touching a high of KES 48.50 during trading, though closing slightly lower at KES 47 levels last seen June 2011. On the losing end Ho using Finance slipped 5.7% to KES 27.00 after posting a 7% decline in FY12 PBT earlier in the week.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.04%, USD 1.2m

A very muted day in Port Louis for a change. Most of the action was centered around SBM which closed up 98bps at Rs103 on good volume as the name continues to be popular with the bulls. MCB closed unchanged at Rs182. The rest of the Sem-7 was mixed with Alteo (+1.16%, Rs34.90) closing higher while Terra and Bramer Banking both fell.

Nigeria: ASI -0.60%, USD 32.95m

A very active day in Nigeria although profit taking evident across various counters. The BNK10 closed down 51bps with the main drags on the sector being Zenith (-2.32%, N20.66), Fidelity (-3.65%, N3.17) and Stanbic (-4.96%, N13.21). The consumer stocks were also mixed – the aggressive buying in Nestle that has been taking place in recent sessions gave way after yesterdays results, the name closing down 5.2% at N930 on good volume. Cadbury also closed down 4.41% at N39 while PZ closed up an impressive 8.11% at N40. Big volumes went through in Dangcem, the name ending unchanged at N146.99.

South Africa: Top 40 -2.07%, USD 1.97bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 2.07% to close at 35,278 while value traded amounted to USD 1.97bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 3.43% followed by Industrials and Fiancials which fell 1.38% and 1.14% respectively. The Rand was trading at 8.91 and 11.76 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE unch, USD 845k

Another very impressive day (relatively speaking) in Lusaka as value traded amounted to USD 845k thanks to crosses in ZSUG and CEC. The names that traded included CEC, FQMZ, LAFA, SCZ and ZSUG. ZSUG was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 557k. CEC was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 200k.

Zimbabwe: Inudsutrials +0.18%, Mining -1.01%, USD $2.1m

The ZSE industrial index traded higher for the third consecutive day albeit marginally posting a +0.18% gain to 187.01pts as market heavy weight Econet continued to scale new highs. The telecoms group closed the day 0.77% firmer at a new all time high of 660.2c as demand remained strong in the group. Activity indicators showed improvement across the board with value traded increasing +70.8% to $2.1m while volumes were up 79.6% at 12.0 million shares. Innscor was the most liquid stock for the day after 983,666 shares exchanged hands at a stable price of 100c in trades worth $983,666. Other notable trades were seen beverages giant Delta in which 531,550 shares traded while Truworths saw a block of 7m shares exchange hands as a special bargain at a price of 3.65c being a 3.7% premium to its last traded price. The mining Index dropped -1.01% to 80.46pts on the back of the loss in Falgold. The rest of the mining stocks saw no changes.

African Currencies