Movers & Shakers: January 11, 2013

Botswana: DCI -0.10%, USD 64k

Another rather slow day in Bots with value traded amounting to USD 64k while the market closed the day lower with the DCI falling 0.10% to close at 7,522.81. Letshego accounted for the majority of activity today as a total of 224k shares traded in the name. Chobe (260t, +5t), Choppies (207t, +1t), Furnmart (167t, +6t) and Primetime (185t, +1t) were the only names that closed higher. G4S (578t, -1t) and WIL (280t, -10t) were the only counters that closed the day lower.

Egypt: Closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.70%, USD 5.6m

Equity turnover declined just 4.1% during the session with local investors increasing their participation from 53% to 69.4% in the previous session. The MPC's reduction of the benchmark Central Bank Rate by 150bps to 9.5% appears to have spurred improved interest in the bourse, particularly from local investors. The macro picture in the country remains generally robust, explaining a strong second week of the year. The currency has been trending lower but we expect some stability to develop next week. KCB Bank was the largest mover of the day, up 3.1% as both local and foreign investors scrambled for the stock ahead of FY12 results due end of February. EABL notched 1% higher to KES 294 on foreign investor buying moderated by some selling. Barclays Bank was 0.3% lower as foreign sales came in at 80% of the supply. TransCentury rose 1.1% on foreign investor buying on a day that Tullow and Africa Oil provided an operational update on their Turkana County operations. TransCentury owns a 62% stake in Civicon, a transport and construction company whose key clients include Tullow and Lake Turkana Wind Power Project.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.72%, USD 1.54m

Pleasing way to end the week with value traded amounting to USD 1.54m. SBM continued to impressive from an activity point of view today as a total of 221k shares traded, 202k of which was a cross. Foreign interest in MCB continued which helped push the name to close at 176 as a total of 93k shares traded with a number of large crosses taking place in the name. The rally in NMH hotel continued today with the counter gaining 5.65% to close at 65.50.

Nigeria: ASI +1.77%, USD 17.00m

Things slowed down a bit on the the last trading day of the week with value traded amounting to $17m. The rally in banking stocks resumed today after two days of profit taking with the Bank10 Index gaining 3.01% lead higher by the likes of Sterling (+9.14%), Fidelity (+6.76%) and Guaranty Bank (+4.85%). Guinness put in a rather solid performance with the counter gaining 5% on decent volume as foreigners sought after the name. Banking stocks Zenith, Guaranty and First Bank also lead the charge in terms of activity.

South Africa: Top 40 -0.06%, USD 1.36bn

The JSE ended the day slightly lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.06% to close at 35,792 while value traded amounted to USD 1.36bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 0.88% while Financials and Industrials gained 0.54% and 0.28% respectively. The Rand was trading at 8.72 and 11.47 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE -0.16%, USD 31k

Slight increase in activity but nothing to write home about with value traded amounting to USD 31k. The names that traded included BAT, CEC, LAFA, ZNCO and ZSUG. ZSUG was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 9k. BAT was the second bigggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 6k.

Zimbabwe: Ind +2.23%, Mining +5.18%, USD 3.32m

Today’s trades marked a climax of a full week of the industrial index‘s getting solid each day. Buying interest on selected counters lifted the industrial index putting on +2.23% at 159.90pts on fifteen gainers. Week on week the industrial index gained 8.07 points (5.32%). Today’s turnover improved to $3.32m on 13.62m shares up from 4.15m yesterday. Contributing the largest to the value trades was Econet that kicked in trades worth $ 1.9m. Delta was second contributing 20% of the turnover whilst Pearl, Barclays and Meikles each contributed 4% and the remaining 23 counters accounted for 9%. Favorite counters among foreigners were blue chips Innscor, Delta, Econet which dominated trades in terms of volumes and value traded this week Foreign purchasing improved from $21,070 to $2.84m whilst foreign sellers marginally upped from $312,577 to $413,917. Buying appetite still remains with foreigners as they remain net buyers. The resources index went up 3.56 points (5.18%) to close at 72.25 points. week on week the mining index gained 5.88 points (8.86%). Bindura rose 0.40 cents to close at 1.90 cents the other three counters were unchanged at the previous trading level.

African Currencies