Movers & Shakers: January 26, 2012

Botswana: DCI -0.06%, Vols USD 138k

The DCI ended the day marginally lower, down 0.06% at 6877.19pts. Turnover stood at USD138k. BIHL accounted for 55% of the day's turnover with 56,272 shares trading 1t lower at 980t. Engen saw 40,182 shares trade in the name at 551, accounting for 22% of the vols. ABCH was unchanged at 455t. 17,000 Letshego crossed the floor at 140t.

BRVM: BRVM Comp +0.76%, BRVM 10 +0.52%, Vols USD 220k

The market went against its general trend to end the day in positive territory. The BRVM Comp increased by 0.76% to 140.43pts while the BRVM 10 rose by 0.52% to 161.27pts. Sodeci led the gainers ending the day 15.54% higher at XOF 22,080, followed by SMB which traded 5.26% higher at XOF 20,000. Solibra edged up 3.66% to XOF 170,000. SGBCI led the laggards to close 6.29% lower at XOF 40,200. Filtisac lost 1.85% at XOF 2,650 while SITAB edged down 0.78% at XOF 63,500.

Egypt: EGX 30 +7.18%, Vols USD 108m

The market witnessed a massive rally on strong volumes to be the best performing index YTD, the EGX30 ended the day up 7.18%, to close at 4432.99 points. Volumes has improved dramatically to reach a new 52 week high, market traded a total turnover of USD 108m. With the 25th January revolution anniversary passing peacefully without any clashes between the protesters and the security forces, local and international institutions started to increase their exposure aggressively in local blue chip, targeting names such as COMI, OCIC, TMGH and ESRS, each ending the day up 9.41%, 6.30%, 9.41% and 9.58% respectively. Local retail investors continue to be net sellers as facility's providers look to reduce credit exposure to the market.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Buyers by 52.84 mn EGP and were 28.10% of the market.
• Egyptians were net Sellers by 43.95 mn EGP and were 65.28% of the market
•  Arabs were net Sellers by 8.88 mn EGP and were 6.63% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by 4.43 mn EGP and were 48.01% of the market.
•  Retail were net Sellers by 39.51 mn EGP and were 51.98% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.2%, Vols USD 2.1m

Turnover on the Nairobi bourse increased by 18.7% to USD2.1m. Trading was recorded in 45 counters; 13 gained, 18 declined while the rest remained unchanged. Equity Bank dominated today’s trading (52.7% of market turnover) buoyed by increased demand from foreign and local investors which saw the stock trade at a high of KES 17.00 in the afternoon session. The counter closed 0.9% higher at KES 16.65 on a volume of 6.8m shares. Safaricom recouped yesterday’s loss to end up 3.2% to KES 3.20. Bamburi and Nation Media were the notable losers among the top movers, down 3.7% and 2.9% respectively on selling pressure in the usually illiquid stocks. Kenya Airways was unchanged for the day after reporting strong operating numbers at the beginning of the session.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.07%, USD 1.5m

Today's trading session was characterised by several crosses across the board. MCB held steady at Rs165 while SBM mostly traded at Rs80 (-0.60%) but closed at Rs79.50. Sun lost 10c to Rs41.50. Lux was down -2.2% at Rs22, while NMHL recouped Rs1 to Rs77 on a cross of 11k shares. Rogers traded flat at Rs330. IBL won back 50c to end at Rs80. PBL added on Rs2 to Rs200. On the DEM, MASC plunged to Rs2.50 (-16.7%) on an exchange of 10k shares. UFL which opened down by 20 cents at Rs13.10 instead closed up by 20 cents at Rs13.50; and related FUEL recouped Rs3 to Rs143.

Nigeria: ASI +0.65%, Vols USD 13.92m

The Nigerian ASI gained 0.65% while value traded amounted to USD 13.92m. Top traded stocks were Zenith Bank, First Bank, Fidelity Bank, UBA, Access Bank, Continental Reinsurance, GTB, Skye Bank, Universal Insurance and Guinness. Top losers of the day were Gold Link Insurance (-5.00%), IBTC (-5.00%), Cutix (-4.96%), Presco Plc (-4.96%) and Fidson (-4.60%). The gainers were led by Unilever (5.00%), Diamond Bank (5.00%), First Bank (4.91%), NAHCO (4.90%) and Dangote Sugar (4.88%). The banking sector ASI closed up 103bps. First Bank closed up 4.91% at N9.61 and traded 25.04m units while Zenith Bank closed up 0.17% at N12.02 trading 61.36m units Diamond Bank closed up 5.00% at N2.31 and traded 859k units. The sector also had crosses of 12.4m units Fidelity Bank, 36.2m units of Zenith Bank, 3.4m units of Access Bank. 9.5m units of First Bank, 4.3m units of UBA, 2.6m units of Skye Bank and 1m units of IBTC. In the building materials sector, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria closed down -1.96% at N5.01 and traded 105k units while Lafarge Wapco closed flat at N44.28 and traded 204k units. Dangote Cement closed up 1.71% at N120 and traded 310K units in total. In the food and beverages sector, Nigerian Breweries closed flat at N93 and traded 648k units while Dangote Sugar closed up 4.88% at N4.73 with 259k units traded. Guinness closed flat at N230 trading 2.84m units. The sector also had a cross of 2.5m units of Guinness Plc. There were also crosses of 7.8m units of Universal Insurance and 1m units of Presco Plc.

South Africa: Top 40 +1.45%, Vols USD 1.7bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index increasing by 1.45% to close at 30,508.85pts buoyed by gold miners such as Harmony Gold that surged on a jump in the price of bullion. Golds ended 4.59% higher while resources edged up 2.65%. The ZAR firmed against the USD on the back of a more dovish than expected FOMC meeting, at which the Fed indicated that rates would stay at the their current all-time lows until the end of 2014.

Zambia: LuSE -0.80%, Vols USD 32k

The market recorded a turnover of USD 32,301. The counters that traded today included AELZ, LAFA, SCBL, ZMFA and ZNCO. The biggest contributor towards turnover was AELZ, 25,953 shares traded at an average price of ZMK 3,999.95, turnover amounted to USD 20,762. The second biggest contributor towards turnover was ZNCO, 39,640 shares traded at an average price of ZMK 1,205, turnover amounted to USD 9,553.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.84%, Mining +4.69%, Vols USD 672k

The industrial index is failing to find balance losing a further -0.84% in Thursday trades to 137.79pts weighed down financial stocks after CBZ (-10%), FBC (-3.23%), Interfin (-28.57%) and TN (-7.89%) traded in the negative as the financial sector continues to suffer from acute liquidity challenges which were exacerbated by the payment of civil servant bonus in November 2011. Trust was offered lower at 0.9c with no bids, Barclays was bid and offer at 4 and 4.4c respectively while ZB and NMB traded unchanged at 20c and 1c respectively. Eleven counters traded in the negative against 5 risers as the equities market continues to see heightened volatility. Meikles dropped -5.50% or 0.99c to 17c, Hippo lost -8.19% to 100.99c, Innscor eased -0.66% to 56c while DZL lost -0.55% to 18c. Econet has managed to hold fort at 370c despite selling pressure while Seedco was steady at 112c on local buying. Trading against the momentum was Dawn which added +9.23% to 0.71c, AICO picking up 3.13% to 16.50c and Old Mutual up +2.74% to 150c. Thin volumes persisted with turnover well below the $1m mark at $672,192 from 8.97m shares. ART recorded the highest volumes after a cross of 4.7m shares exchanged hands at 0.4c as property firms Dawn and Mash recorded 853,362 and 1m shares respectively. Foreign participation was minimal at 17% ($117,595) of turnover on the buyside and 14% ($94,036) of sellside. The mining index closed the day firmer adding 4.69% to 80.18pts boosted by an improved bid in Hwange at 30c despite a -9.09% loss in Bindura at 2c. Rio was bid lower at 25c with no trades taking place.