Movers & Shakers: January 21, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.03%, USD 722k

A solid if unspectacular day in Gaborone as the DCI inches higher on reasonable volume. As always, Letshego accounting for the lion’s share of the days activity (86%) as the name again finds a level here at 200t. Choppies also saw moderate activity with the name trading at 210t. A number of other counters saw some very muted trading.

Egypt: EGX 30 -0.77%, USD 61m

The market ended the day in negative territories lead by notable profit booking, the EGX30 ended the day down 0.77% to close 5640.75 points. Market volumes slightly improved compared to recent market turnovers, the market traded a total turnover of USD 61m its worth mentioning that more than 33% of the total turnover were attributed to crosses in CCAP, COMI and NSGB. The market could not continue with its bullish momentum, local retail started the day as notable sellers ahead of the 25th of January revolution anniversary, yet by end session local retail changed their sentiment to end the day as net buyers leaving international investors to be the sole net sellers today. ORTE was one of the few name that traded against the market sentiment this came after news that the firm is to Acquire Wind Mobile Control to Test New Canadian Law, the former ended the day up 2.42% to close at EGP4.24.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 77.23 mn EGP and were 29.05% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 61.61 mn EGP and were 65.10% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Buyers by 15.61 mn EGP and were 5.85% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by 46.26 mn EGP and were 37.79% of the market.
•  Retail were net Buyers by 46.26 mn EGP and were 62.20% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.64%, USD 4.8m

The benchmark NSE 20 Share Index fell 0.64%, extending losses made in the previous session due to light profit taking across the board. Equity turnover remained largely unchanged at USD 4.8m. Foreign investors turned net sellers today (net inflows -444k) and accounted for 58% of total trades. Safaricom was today’s top mover accounting for 62% of volumes driven by foreign investor selling. Despite the selling pressure, the telecom remained unchanged at KES 5.75. Of the top movers, Equity bank and Kengen witnessed profit taking (following last week’s rally) easing 1% and 2.9% to KES 25.5 and KES 13.35 respectively. Among the days leading losers were banking stocks, CFC Stanbic, NIC and Housing Finance, reversing previous week’s gains to close 6.1%, 3.9% and 3.4% lower at KES 42.24 KES 43.25 and KES 17 respectively. Top gainers today were on light trading. Investors remain a bit apprehensive following sporadic chaos during party primaries last week and even as we inch closer to the March 4th polls.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.37%, USD 476k

Very quiet way to start the week with value traded amounting to a rather dull USD 476k. MCB retreated for the seond day in a row on very thin volume (28k shares) with the counter closing at 179 on some light profit taking. Activity in SBM was also very muted as 5k shares traded with the name falling 0.55% to close at 91.00. There was also some form of profit taking witnessed in NMH with the counter falling 1.49% to close at 66.00.

Nigeria: ASI -0.27%, USD 23.14m

It was a fairly active start to the week with value traded amounting to USD 23.14m, but it must be stated that the going was rather slow as volume was concentrated on a few names with the likes of UBA being very active thanks to a few large crosses. There was a bit of profit taking witnessed today especially in the bank stocks with the Bank10 Index falling 0.33% with Stanbic (-3.92%) and Zenith (-1.79%) leading the way lower. Nigerian Breweries came under quite a bit of pressure with some profit taking evident after a strong run on Friday with the counter falling 3.47%. WAPCO was one of the star performers with the cement counter gaining an impressive 6.56% driven by a local buyer.

South Africa: Top 40 -0.44%, USD 1.25bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.44% to close at 35,567 while value traded amounted to USD 1.25bn. Industrials were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 1.13% while Financials and Resources gained 0.40% and 0.03% respectively. The Rand was trading at 8.86 and 11.80 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +0.81%, USD 62k

There was not much going on in Lusaka today with value traded amounting to a mere USD 62k. The names that traded included CEC, INVE, SCBL, SCZ and ZSUG. SCZ was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 43k. CEC was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 18k.

Zimbabwe: Ind -0.01%, Mining +3.36%, USD 230k

The mainstream industrial index rally took a breather in a light session on Monday snapping a three week upward trading pattern. The industrial index dropped a marginal -0.01% or 0.02pts to 165.38pts weighed down by two stocks DZL and Mash which eased -4.55% and 4.55% to 21c and 2.45c respectively despite four stocks trading in the positive. Bankers ZBFH rose 12.36% to 9c, tourism group African sun put on 11.11% to 1c as it benefits from improved profitability while ART and Fidelity rose 11.11% and 9.09% to 0.5c and 12c respectively. Most of the big names traded unchanged: Delta (114.3c), Inncsor (79c), Barclays (3.6c), OK (15.6c), Econet (520c) while Hippo, Seedco and Old Mutual recorded no trades. Telecoms giant Econet closed net sellers at 520c as it shows signs of profit taking. Volumes traded dropped 4.8% to 2.86m shares while value traded thinned out 88% to a mere $0.23m after Econet recorded the smallest trade in three weeks (2000 shares). Foreign participation dropped 92% on the purchases side to $0.1m due to thin volumes while there were no foreign sales. A +23.15% rise in Falgold adding 3.01c to 16.01c drove the mining’s +3.36 % up to 75.59pts. The other three stocks Rio, Bindura and Hwange did not record any trades and remained unchanged.

African Currencies