Movers & Shakers: January 19, 2012

Botswana: DCI -0.04%, Vols USD 226k

The Gaborone bourse witnessed increased activity today with turnover increasing to USD 226k compared to USD 25k. Trades were recorded in four counters with 3 of them ending the day in the red. Letlole lost 1t to 115t, Letshego was down 7t to 142t and Primetime gave up 2t to 183t. Sechaba was unchanged at 1205t on 70,890 shares.

Egypt: EGX 30 -0.91%, Vols USD 40m

Market traded in negative territory, leaving the EGX30 0.91 % down to close at 3868.44. Volumes remain to be weak, market traded a total turnover of USD 40m, in which approximately 11% of total turnover was attributed to one cross in JUFO. Local retail investors were the major sellers today benefiting from this week’s rally and also some investors were anxious of reduce their exposure ahead of the 25th Jan Revolution anniversary. Supporting the market were Local institutions and Non Arab investors as buyers, this came after both were net sellers for the past couple of weeks. Names such as OCIC and SWDY traded against the general market sentiment, both names ended the day in positive territories, each last printing up 0.58% and 0.36% respectively.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Buyers by 19.48 mn EGP and were 28.27% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Sellers by 11.21 mn EGP and were 67.00% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Sellers by 8.26 mn EGP and were 4.72% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Buyers by 6.43 mn EGP and were 45.02% of the market.
•  Retail were net Sellers by 17.65 mn EGP and were 54.97% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.1%, Vols USD 1.1m

The NSE continued trading thin vols with only USD 1.1m worth trading today. Local investors accounted for 79.5 % of total turnover, with a 81.3% contribution to the sell side. The market recorded trades in 46 counters with 21 counters ending in the green, 14 counters in negative territory while the rest remained level. There was a bit of selling pressure on Mumias Sugar by foreign investors, with concerns that falling global sugar prices could eventually impact margins for the miller. Mumias however ended up 1% as locals considered the strength of domestic retail prices during 2011. Equity Bank and BAT continued being part of the leading movers on matched demand and supply. This left the two counters flat for the day. Total Kenya ended 3.2% higher while KenolKobil gained 3.0% as investor concern for the oil sector abated. The media stocks saw some weakness with Nation Media easing 2.2% while Standard Group shed 1.8%. Their core newsprint business faced challenges during 2011 with the players having to increase their cover prices to compensate for higher costs.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.06%, Vols USD 1m

The Semdex and the Sem 7 continued with their downward trend, ending the day 0.06% and 0.04% lower, respectively. Lux was actively traded in with 80k shares trading in the name at Rs23.50. Sun Resorts finished 0.9% lower at Rs43.60 on thin volumes. MCB traded 0.6% lower at Rs165 while SBM remained level at Rs82. The main highlight on the Dem today was the cross in Constance Hotel Service which recorded a trade of 400k shares followed by another 50k shares on the normal market at Rs30. As a result turnover on the Dem increased to Rs14.3m.

Nigeria: ASI -0.37%, Vols USD 7.45m

The Nigerian ASI fell 0.37% while value traded amounted to USD 7.45m. Top traded stocks were UBA, C&I Leasing, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, Continental Reinsurance, Zenith Bank, First Bank, Skye Bank, Diamond Bank, Unity Bank and GTB. Top losers of the day were Multi-Trex Integrated Food (-4.96%), Vita Foam (-4.93%), Skye Bank (-4.88%), Transcorp (-4.84%) and UBA (-4.80%). The gainers were led by AG Leventis (5.00%), Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (4.90%), National Aviation Handling Company (4.82%), May & Baker (4.80%) and AIICO Insurance (3.92%). The banking sector ASI closed down 2.06bps. In the banking sector, UBA traded 34m units and closed -4.80% at N2.38 while Zenith Bank also traded 10m units and closed down 2.51% at N12.02. Diamond Bank traded 6m units and closed 2.70% at N2.28. The sector also had crosses of 17.15m units of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, 3m units of FCMB, 1m units of Unity Bank, 26.2m units of UBA, 3.7m units of Diamond Bank and 7.6m units of Zenith Bank. In the building materials sector, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria traded 333K units and closed 4.90% at N5.78 while Ashaka Cement was -0.78% down closing at N11.41 and trading 154k units. Dangote Cement closed flat at N118 and traded 12k units in total. In the food and beverages sector, Nigerian Breweries traded 2m units and closed 0.73% at N96.15. Dangote Sugar closed -1.64% at N4.81 with 670k units traded while Cadbury traded 1m units and closed flat at N11.98. There were also crosses of 3m units of Law Union and Rock Insurance, 16.5m units of C & I Leasing Plc and 6m units of Custodian and Allied Insurance.

South Africa: Top 40 +0.13%, Vols USD 2.05bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.13% to close at 30,007 while value traded amounted to USD 2.05bn. Financials were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 1.03% while Industrials and Resources fell 0.07% and 0.05% respectively. The Rand was trading at 7.93 and 10.23 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +1.25%, Vols USD 226k

The market recorded a turnover of USD 226,375.68.The counters that traded today included CECZ, PMDZ, SCBL, ZMBF, ZNCO and ZSUG. The biggest contributor towards turnover was ZMBF, 352,314 shares traded at an average price of ZMK 2,950, turnover amounted to USD 207,865. The second biggest contributor towards turnover ZNCO, 69,171 shares traded at an average price of ZMK 1,300, turnover amounted to USD 17,984.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.74%, Mining +5.92%, Vols USD 1.2m

The industrial index snapped an 8th day positive trend after heavy weights Delta, Econet, Seedco and AICO dragged the index lower. The industrial index slipped -0.74% to 143.27pts. Delta and Econet lost -1.35% and -0.71% to 69.50c and 365c respectively while Seedco eased -3.21% to 120.99c on selling pressure. Agro concern AICO which has been riding on the momentum of a possible merger between its cotton business, Cotco and Olam and peaked at 20.1c, following cautionary statements issued over the past month, is now heading southerwards easing -5.13% to 18.50c as no further details have been provided by the company over the transactions. Banking stocks dominated losses as Interfin lost -11.39% to 7c, NMBZ eased -9.095 to 1c and TN lost -4.76% to 3.8c.
Modest gains were seen in dually listed entities Old Mutual and PPC up 2.94% and 2.54% to 140c and 202c respectively. Meikles rose +0.33% to 21.1c. Large volumes in Barclays (963,471), RTG (8m), Turnal (2m), FBC (827,676) and Dawn (4m) saw total volumes improve to 21.7m units from 8.1m despite a marginal decline in value traded to $1.2m. Foreign participation was minimal at $38,964 and $121,147 for purchases and sales respectively as local institutional investors realign their portfolio in line with their 2012 investment strategies. In the resources sector, Falgold put on an impressive +16.67% to 7c while Hwange recovered +7.14% to 30c spurring the mining index to a 5.92% gain to 80.82pts.