Movers & Shakers: January 24, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.21%, USD 990k

Rather active in Gaborone today with value traded amounting to USD 990k thanks to crosses in the likes of Furnmart, Choppies and Letshego. There was also a fair amount of activity in a number of the counters, which is not often the case in Bots. The market managed to close in positive territory with the DCI gaining 0.21% to close at 7,588.57.

Egypt: Closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.73%, USD 3.4m

A much reduced day in most African markets today. Equity turnover fell 18.7% in today’s session due to a decline in foreign investor activity, with participation declining to 36% of trades compared to 50% in the previous session. The NSE 20 index eased 0.73% to close at 4,385 points, driven by profit taking on some large cap counters. Safaricom was the day’s top mover accounting for 21% of volumes. DTB was also fairly active during the session driven by local investor profit taking . The counter eased 3% to KES 130. Nation Media also witnessed local investor selling pressure, declining 2.3% to KES 230. Strong foreign investor demand was witnessed in EABL and Equity Bank where foreigners accounted for over 90% of demand. EABL however fell 0.7% to KES 294. Transcentury reversed yesterday’s gains while Kengen extended its losses losing 2.7% and 5.8% to KES 27 and KES 11.40 respectively. City Trust sustained its momentum climbing 11.1% (above the 10% one day change limit set by the NSE) to KES 452. Yesterday the company released a shareholder circular providing additional details of the planned share swap with I&M Bank which will subsequently be listed on the main investments segment.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.18%, USD 2.99m

Activity increased today with the listing of Le Meritt Holdings (first trading day today). The property development stock hit a high of 11.10 during the session, but closed at 11.00, witnessed a cross of 6.8m shares at 10.00 from participation of Placees in the placing. MCB managed to close in positive territory on thin volume of 28k shares while SBM closed unchanged at 91.50 as a total of 66k shares changed hands.

Nigeria: Closed for the day.

South Africa: Top 40 +1.15%, USD 1.7bn

A strong day in Johannesburg on good volumes as the JSE tracks global markets into the green. Resources and Financials were both strong. The ZAR continues to struggle and was trading at 9.05, 12.09 and 14.28 vs the USD, EUR, and GBP respectively at the time of writing.

Zambia: LuSE -0.03%, USD 21k

Rather boring day in Lusaka with value traded amounting to USD 21k. The names that traded included CCHZ, PUMA, REIZ, ZMBF, ZNCO and ZSUG. ZNCO was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 10k. ZMBF was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 9k.

Zimbabwe: Ind +0.38%, Mining +1.60%, USD 1.09m

Bulls showed no signs of slowing down as the ZSE edged higher in Thursday trades spurred by interest in big names OK, Meikles, Delta, BAT and Innscor. Food retailer, OK rose 0.89% to 15.8c, Delta added a further 0.46% to 116.01c, Innscor put on 0.62% to 81.5c while Meikles and BAT were 5.02% and 6.89% higher at 23c and 450c respectively. Seed producer, Seedco was however 3.75% softer at 77c albeit on thin volumes while property group Pearl pared 4% to 2.4c on a sizeable block on 7m shares. Telecoms giant was steady at 520c with signs of weakening evident as it closed net sellers for the fourth session. Construction group, M&R was offers only at 3c after reports that its CEO Stewart Mangoma has left the group for platinum giant, Zimplats. By the close of trade, the industrial index was 0.38% higher at 168.11points while the mining index climbed 1.60% to 77.41points after Hwange was bid higher at 19c despite there being no trades in the sector.

African Currencies