Movers & Shakers: January 30, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.37%, USD 614k

Another rather decent day in Gaborone as Letshego once again dominated trading with a total of 1.18m shares changing hands in the counter. FNBB was also rather active as a total of 501k shares traded. The market closed in positive territory with the DCI gaining 0.37% to close at 7,712.89 while value traded amounted to USD 614k.

Egypt: EGX 30 +1.47%, USD 41m

The EGX30 index managed to pick up today and ended the day higher +1.47% yet on below average volume of USD 41m. Local investors(mainly instituions) chose to step-in today and build up some positions after yesterday’s dip and mostly targeted the usual relatively safe bets, OCIC, COMI, ORTE and HRHO, considering that each stock has a benefit of its own. OCIC deal and share swap, COMI after being oversold yesterday, ORTE speculating on Djezzy resolution, and last but not least, HRHO on Qinvest merger and EGP 4 cash-Div which is currently awaiting EFSA's approval. In-addition, JUFO continued to surge on decent volumes as endless buyers and limited suppliers remain the main theme. On the other hand, internationals continued their net selling activity on the back of the ongoing tension in Egypt.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 18.78 mn EGP and were 34.10% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 19.00 mn EGP and were 59.95% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Sellers by 0.22 mn EGP and were 5.95% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Buyers by 1.59 mn EGP and were 48.20% of the market.
•  Retail were net Sellers by 1.59 mn EGP and were 51.79% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.22%, USD 5.1m

Equity turnover climbed 42% in today’s session, driven by increased foreign investor participation at 61% of trades compared to 46% in the previous session. The NSE 20 index gained 22bps with 20 of the counters traded gaining, 11 declining and the rest remaining unchanged. KCB was the day’s top mover accounting for 23% of volumes with foreign investors actively participating on both sides of the counter. Of the top movers, strong foreign investors demand was witnessed in Safaricom, EABL (+0.3%), Equity Bank and Kenya Power (+2.6%), while ARM (-1.9%) witnessed selling pressure. Uchumi Ltd (+0.3%) on the other hand saw strong local investor demand. The Retailer last year announced that they were seeking to raise capital in the course of this year by way of rights issue, but are yet to disclose the full details of the proposed capital raising. City Trust sustained its upward momentum climbing 2.4% today to close at KES 465. On the losing end Kengen reversed some of the gains it made in the past two session by falling 2.8% to KES 12.15.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.20%, USD 3.36m

MCB once again dominated activity today as foreigners were heavily involved in the name with a total of 250k shares changing hands thanks to a few large crosses. Activity also increased today with value traded amounting to USD 3.36m. NMH hotels was rather active as a total of 159k shares traded with a cross of 100k shares going through where the buyer was foreign. Alteo was also rather active thanks to a few large crosses with the counter gaining 0.63% to close at 32.20.

Nigeria: ASI +0.77%, USD 24.06m

Despite numerous technical issues on the NSE today we saw some late activity bumping up volumes as the ASI rose by 77bps. The banking sector again dominated activity yet the BNK10 only rose by 1bp. The best performer in the sector was UBA (+3.03%, N6.80) while GTB comfortably dominated the turnover charts. Wapco saw some chunky crossing action hence decent volume traded in the name, the counter closing up 6bps at N65.50. Nestle continues its amazing run, touching an all-time high of N861.49 before closing at N840.10 (+6.31%). Nigerian Breweries also saw good volume, closing up 2.66% at N158. UACN took a big hit, closing down 8.63% at N50.30 on good volume.

South Africa: Top 40 -0.43%, USD 1.57bn

A soft day in Johannesburg with the banking stocks the most affected. At the time of writing, the ZAR was at R9.06, R 12.30 and R14.31 vs the USD, EUR and GBP respectively.

Zambia: LuSE +1.56%, USD 100k

Much better day in Zambia today thanks to crosses in ZMBF and LAFA as value traded amounted to USD 100k. The names that traded included BATA, LAFA, NATBREW, ZAMBREW, ZMBF and ZNCO. ZMBF was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 66k. LAFA was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 21k.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +1.77%, Mining +4.86%, USD 1.17m

ZSE stocks traded higher in mid week trades as the market oozed with confidence following the conclusion of constitutional reforms. The industrial index advanced 3.04 points (1.77%) to settle at 175.00 points spurred top listed stocks as Delta, OK and Innscor traded at all-time high prices while Econet closer to its October 2009 highest level. Delta put on 2.50% or 2.98c to 122c and is already 22% higher than its year opening price, OK climbed 3.13% to 16.50c in thin trades while the scramble for Innscor saw the stock rise a solid 5.26% to 87.50c. Econet rose 1.87% or 10.01c to 545.01c after its associate company Liquid Telecom announced the acquisition of all East Africa businesses of technology giant Altech. Conglomerate CFI was the only counter to trade in negative territory, easing 8.16% to 4.50c. Market activity in absolute terms was subdued however as volumes dropped 83% to 8.95m while turnover declined to $1.17m as the market remains predominantly a sellers’ market. Foreign purchases were 3.1% lower at $0.474m while sales amounted to $0.220m. The mining index rose 4.86% to close at 80.64 points spurred by BINDURA and RIO. Nickel miner, Bindura gained 0.20 cents to trade at 2.70 cents whilst Rio was bid higher at 55c.

African Currencies