Movers & Shakers: January 29, 2014

Botswana: DCI +0.25%, USD 65k

Not much on the go in Gaborone today as value traded amounted to a very dissapointing USD 65k as Choppies accounted for the bulk of the turnover.

Egypt: EGX 30 +0.08%, USD 109m

The market traded on mixed sentiment to end the day in the greens, leaving the EGX30 to end the day up 0.08% to close at 7,374.42 points. The market continued to trade healthy volumes, a total turnover of EGP765 million. The day began with negative sentiment with local retail investors pressuring the market to reach a low of 7,355.26 points. Names such as AIND (-4.60%), OTMT(-1.68%), and GTHE(-1.13%) witnessed selling pressure. After an hour of trading, international institutions along with GCC investors managed to lift the market as net-buyers, targeting names such as PHDC, JUFO and TMGH leaving each to end the day up 3.25%, 1.49% and 0.99% respectively. PHDC witnessed the highest close since September 2012 after it reported a EGP236.8 million profit in 2013 versus a EGP134.6 million loss a year earlier.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.89%, USD 11.6m

Foreign selling pushed the NSE lower throughout the day. Once again Diamond Trust Bank was the most active stock (foreign selling, local buying) as the name closed unchanged at KES 223. Activity returned in the major banks although most of this was local. KNCB closed down 1.6% at KES 45.50 while Equity Bank lost 2.3% to KES 32.00. Safcom lost ground on foreign selling as the name eventually settled down 1.7% at KES 11.85. EABL lost 70bps to KES 277 despite some nice foreign buying in the counter.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.41%, USD 2.1m

We saw a sell-off in Port Louis on good volumes. The Sem-7 fell by 49bps with losses in SBM (-95bps, Rs1.04), NMH (-1.11%, $89), ENL Land (-51bps, Rs48.50) and Terra (-1.88%, Rs36.50).

Nigeria: ASI -0.97%, USD 18.2m

Rather quiet day in Lagos as value traded amounted to $18.2m. Guaranty Trust Bank ($2.03m), ETI ($1.82m) and Zenith ($1.59m) were the main drivers behind volumes today. Banks (-1.06%) continued to slide with ETI (-4.95%), UBA (-2.59%) and First Bank (-1.96%) being the worst performers in the tier-1 space while Guaranty Trust Bank managed to buck the trend and close +1.09% higher. Consumers (-0.78%) also ended the day lower with Dangote Sugar (-2.52%) and Nestle (-2.15%) dragging the sector lower. Other stocks to take note of today were Oando which fell a whopping -9.71% and WAPCO which also came under pressure to close -4.99% lower.

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

South Africa: Top 40 -0.27%, USD 2.16bn

The main talking point today was the MPC's surprise decision to increase the repo rate by 50bps. The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.27% to close at 40,974 while value traded amounted to USD 2.16bn. Financials were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 2.14% followed by Industrials which fell 0.57% while Resources gained 1.30%. The Rand was trading at 11.24 and 15.34 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.40%, Mining +0.95%, USD 22.77m

The talk of the town was the cross in Seedco which accounted for almost the entire trading volume. This was a special bargain involving the proposed sale by Aico to Vilmorin and Cie. Normal trading was quiet as usual with Delta continuing its slide, closing down 1% at 116c today on a good volume. Aico fell by 1% to 1.98c while Meikles slipped by 33bps to 21c. Econet closed unchanged at 60c albeit on small volumes.

African Currencies