Movers & Shakers: January 25, 2012

Botswana: DCI -0.72%, Vols USD 2m

Another busy day on the BSE with turnover at USD 2m. The DCI however ended the day 0.72% in the red at 6930.85pts. 98% of the day's turnover was contributed by Letshego which saw its share price fall by 2t to 140t on 10,139,490 shares. Primetime lost 1t to 182t while Olympia recorded the only gain of the day, closing 2t up at 25t.

BRVM: BRVM Comp -1.20%, BRVM 10 -1.55%, Vols USD 547k

The BRVM continued trading south with the BRVM Comp and BRVM 10 down 1.20% and 1.55% respectively. Trading was focused on 18 counters. SGBCI lost 4.45% at XOF 42,900, Nestle was down 3.15% to XOF 43,000 and ETI fell by 2.70% at XOF 36. BOA led the gainers closing 3.59% higher at XOF 29,005. Filtisac and Sitab edged up 1.89% and 1.59% at XOF 2,700 and XOF 64,000 respectively.

Egypt: Closed today

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.3%, Vols USD 2.1m

Sluggish activity was noted in the equity market with reduced participation across the board. Turnover declined 37.2% to USD 2.1m. During the session, 46 counters were traded; 18 gained, 19 declined while the rest remained unchanged. Equity Bank inched 3.1% higher. Safaricom shed 4.6% to KES 3.14 on reduced volumes. Some supply was also visible on KenolKobil but the downstream oil marketer remained flat for the session at KES 10.05. Small-caps, Williamson Tea, Kakuzi and Rea Vipingo featured amongst the day’s top movers after moving abnormally high volumes. KPLC one of the other top traders, touched a 12 month low of KES 15.10.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.56%, USD 1.5m

The market continue south with the Semdex closing 0.6% lower at 1,837.20pts. The Sem-7 dragged by weaknesses on NMH and IBL ended the day 0.32% lower at 343.01pts. NMH lost 2.60% to Rs75 while IBL was down 0.62% at Rs79.50. MCB and SBM held steady at Rs165 and Rs80.50 respectively. Innodis lost 1.2% at Rs40. The local brewer PBL saw a cross of 17k shares at Rs198 to close the session at that price level, experiencing a decrease of 4.8%. On the DEM side, the index fell by 0.3% to reach 150.94pts.

Nigeria: ASI +0.04%, Vols USD 13.07m

The Nigerian ASI gained 0.04% while value traded amounted to USD 13.07m. Top traded stocks were Sovereign Trust Insurance, Continental Reinsurance, Fidelity Bank, Zenith Bank, Courtville Plc, First Bank, UBA, FCMB, Access Bank and GTB. Top losers of the day were BOC Gas Plc (-4.96%), Union Bank (-4.95%), Vitafoam (-4.92%), International Breweries (-4.91%) and Stanbic IBTC (-4.89%). The gainers were led by Berger Paints Plc (4.97%), Diamond Bank (4.76%), May & Baker (4.74%), Fidelity Bank (4.62%) and Livestock Feeds (4.23%). The banking sector index closed up 28bps. Access Bank closed up 2.08% at N4.90 and traded 12.93m units while FCMB closed flat at N4.00 and traded 15.25m units. First Bank closed up 1.22% at N9.16 and traded 18.61m units. The sector also had crosses of 22m units of Zenith bank, 50m units of Fidelity Bank, 13m units of FCMB, 6.7m units of Diamond Bank, 2m units of First Bank, 1.6m units of Access Bank and 2.2m units of Sterling Bank. In the building materials sector, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria closed down 4.84% at N5.11 and traded 266k units while Dangote Cement closed flat at N117.98 and traded 225k units. Ashaka Cement closed down 0.76% at N10.50 and traded 591k units. In the food and beverages sector, Nigerian Breweries closed flat at N93.00 and traded 1.18m units, Dangote Sugar closed up 0.45% at N4.51 and traded 10.09m units while Nestle closed flat at N423.00 and traded 25k units. The sector also had crosses of 6.3m units of Dangote Sugar and 1m units of Dangote Flour. There were also crosses of 64 m units of Sovereign trust insurance, 63.7m units of Continental Re, 1m units of Niger Insurance and 40m units of Courtville Business Solutions.

South Africa: Top 40 -0.34%, Vols USD 1.46bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.34% to close at 30,073 while value traded amounted to USD 1.46bn. Financials were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 0.90% followed by Resources which fell 0.56% while Industrials gained 0.17%. The Rand was trading at 8.03 and 10.42 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +0.30%, Vols USD 1.6m

The market recorded a turnover of USD 1,631,852. The counters that traded today included CECZ, FQMZ, LAFA, PUMA, SCBL, ZMBF and ZMFA. The biggest contributor towards turnover was ZMBF, 2,643,816 shares traded at an average price of ZMK 2,950, turnover amounted to USD 1,559,850. The second biggest contributor towards turnover was FQMZ, 51,245 zdr’s traded at an average price of ZMK5,160.71, turnover amounted to USD 52,892.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -1.08%, Mining Unch, Vols USD 874k

The industrial index fell -1.08% to 138.96pts in improved trades while the mining index was steady at 76.59pts with no trades. Value traded rose 84% to $874,000 from 10.9m shares boosted by foreign sales in Econet. Foreign participation was net sales of $469,095. The industrial index was weighed down by losses in fast foods giant Innscor easing -6.05% to 56.37c from selling pressure. Fifteen counters traded in the negative against 6 risers as the bearish mood continues to engulf the market with no positive stimuli. The outlook for the market will largely depend on December financial results which are expected to start filtering into the market in February and developments on the political front. Conglomerate TSL was the biggest loser of the day after a -21.43% loss took it to 5.5c. TSL which was once dominant player in tobacco marketing is facing stiff competition from new entrants due to lower barriers to entry into the industry while the tobacco output for 2012 is expected to increase to around 150m kg there are fears output could decline this year due to challenges of input costs that farmers faced coupled with extended dry spell that the country has been experiencing. The tobacco marketing season is expected to open on the 15th of the next month. Meikles eased -0.06% to 17.99c as the hype in price in the run-up to the press statement proved a false start. Life assurance group, Fidelity lost -0.33% to 15.2c while Zimplow was -17.67% softer at 7.50c. A rare bout of demand in Ariston saw the group close +27% firmer at 1.4c. As the negative sentiments about the possibility of financial instability caused by bad loans becomes entrenched among investors, demand for Barclays is beginning to show up as its “safe banking model” might prove to be the best strategy after all. Barclays had been penalized by the market as it had been reporting losses due to its conservative banking practices (lowest loan to deposit ratio). Barclays rose 2.5% to 4.1c, Seedco was +1c up at 112c while Old Mutual added +2c to 146c. Econet and Delta were steady at 370c and 69c respectively while CBZ is hanging precariously at 10c.