Movers & Shakers: February 28, 2014

Botswana: DCI +0.07%, USD 27k

Nothing to report from Gaborone.

Egypt: Closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.36%, USD 11.7m

Activity increased significantly today as value traded amounted to $11.7m with EABL dominating turnover as 942k shares traded in the brewer on the back of foreign purchases. The two major banking stocks ended mixed after reporting FY 2013 results yesterday with Kenya Commercial Bank falling -2.2% while Equity Bank gained +0.8%. Foreigners (92.6%) drove sales in Safcom as the telco gained 0.4% on 19.98m shares. BATK reported FY results before the open today, but there was no activity in the name.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.23%, USD 960k

MCB dominated the activity charts as the bank closed the day unchanged at Rs212.50 while SBM fell by 94bps to Rs1.05. The only gainer in the Sem-7 was ENL Land which rose by 95bps to Rs48. Losers included NMH (-30bps, Rs83.50), Alteo (-1.45%, Rs34) and Terra (-26bps, Rs38.90).

Nigeria: ASI +1.73%, USD 79.7m

The Lagos bourse started very quietly until a massive cross in NB (approx. $50m – both sides foreign) got the party started. Activity all round got pretty lively from then on with the banks in particular seeing some chunky trades. The banking sector gained 1.36% with a very late surge in GTB (+4.5%, N25.40) the main driver while most Tier 1 names saw chunky action as did Diamond Bank. The Consumers rose by an impressive 3.30% with gains in NB (+4.8%, N152), Guinness (+9.7%, N197.90), Unilever (+4.5%, N47.05) and Nestle (+2.68%, N1100) leading the month end rally. Cements were rather quiet with just some action in DangCem (+1.27%, N240).

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

South Africa: Top 40 +0.53%, USD 1.91bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.53% to close at 42,771 while value traded amounted to USD 1.91bn. Financials were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 1.99% followed by Resources and Industrials which gained 0.28% and 0.26% respectively. The Rand was trading at 10.72 and 14.78 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.23%, Mining unch, USD 650k

Heavyweight gains in Econet and Old Mutual helped lift the industrials by 0.23% to close higher at 189.45pts in a less active week closing session. Econet notched 0.08% to 65.30c to cap accrued gains of 3% in the week against substantial demand in the stock. Old Mutual on the other hand added 0.45% to 245.11c riding on the parent company’s strong preliminary results for the full year to December 2013. Profit at operational level was up 15% on prior period while a final dividend of 6p was declared. The Mining Index was stable at 39.24pts with minimal trading in Hwange at prior levels of 10c. Overall 30 counters were active with 10 gaining while only 2 lost value. The remainder of 18 stocks traded unchanged.

African Currencies