Movers & Shakers: January 27, 2012

Botswana: DCI +0.33%, Vols USD 2.8m

The DCI ended the week on good vols with USD 2.8m crossing the market today. Barclays accounted for 99.7% of the day's turnover with 3,002,738 shares trading in the name at 690t. Choppies was the only counter to record movement today, closing 15t higher at 155t. Primetime closed flat at 182t and Turnstar was unchanged at 130t.

Egypt: Closed today

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.40%, Vols USD 6.8m

The Nairobi bourse ended the week on a high note buoyed heavy trading on Equity Bank, Barclays Bank and Safaricom which cumulatively accounted for 79.4% of the day’s trades. Turnover soared 168.8% to a ytd high of USD 6.8m. Strong trading was witnessed on Equity Bank throughout the day with foreign investors notably active on both sides of the trades, with a net selling position. The counter was the day’s biggest trader for the fourth consecutive day, accounting for 45.3% of total market turnover. A total of 15.4m shares were crossed to see the counter edge up 0.9% to KES 17.10. Safaricom continued on its upward trend touching a high of KES 3.35 in the afternoon session. The stock gained 3.1% to close at KES 3.30 on a volume of 25.6m shares. KCB Bank gained 2.8% to close at KES 18.50. Co-operative Bank reversed its losses edging up 5.7% to KES 12.95 . Activity on the counter was driven by local investors on both sides of the trades with a total of 1.1m shares traded.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.03%, USD 1.2m

Banking stocks ended the day flat with MCB at Rs165 and SBM at Rs79.50 on relatively thin vols. MEI rose by 2.7% to Rs76 on 3k shares. On the hotel front, Lux ended the day at Rs22.10. Sun Resorts opened lower at Rs41.20 before edging down further to Rs41 on significant volume. The DEM’s Rs2.6M turnover was driven principally by large exchanges on ENIT [76%] at Rs39.40 (-0.3%). Fortis-Darné’s holding company, MASC, slipped by yet another 10 cents to Rs2.40 (-4.0%); MEDL(P) plunged to a 2Yr-Low Rs78 (-4.9%); CIEL fell to 3Yr-Low Rs2.90 (-1.7%) on a min. trade of 100 shares; and both SODIA and CHSL fell to respective all-time lows of Rs1.35 (-3.6%) and Rs29.10 (-3.0%) respectively.

Nigeria: ASI +0.52%, Vols USD 16.56m

The Nigerian ASI closed up 52bps and traded a total value of $16.56m. Top traded stocks were Zenith Bank, Gold Link Insurance Plc, Continental Reinsurance, Skye Bank, Diamond Bank, UBA, Aso Savings & Loans, FCMB, GTB and Fidelity Bank. Top losers of the day were Prestige Assurance (-4.95%), Vita Foam (-4.94%), Fidson Health Care (-4.82%), Sterling Bank (-4.21%) and Unilever (-3.80%). The gainers were led by International Breweries (5.00%), Fidelity Bank (5.00%), IBTC (4.96%), Access Bank (4.89%) and Dangote Sugar (4.86%). The banking sector ASI closed up 199bps. First Bank closed up 2.60% at N9.86 and traded 6.8m units while Zenith Bank closed up 0.67% at N12.10 trading 117m units. UBA closed down 0.46% at N2.18 and traded 15.62m units. The sector also had crosses of 11.7m units of Diamond Bank, 86.7m units of Zenith Bank, 5m units of UBA, 2.9m units of Fidelity Bank and 10m units of Skye Bank. In the building materials sector, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria closed up 4.59% at N5.24 and traded 258k units while Lafarge Wapco also closed up at N44.35 and traded 477k units. Dangote Cement closed flat at N120 and traded 141K units in total. In the food and beverages sector, Nigerian Breweries closed down 0.99% at N92.08 and traded 1.39m units while Dangote Sugar closed up 4.86% at N4.96 with 5.68m units traded. Guinness closed flat at N230 trading 821k units. The sector also had a cross of 1.2m units of Dangote Sugar. There were also crosses of 17.3m units of Continental Reinsurance, 1.3m units of C&I Leasing, 10m units of Aso Savings & Loans and 31.8m units of Gold Link Insurance. Market participation may have been split 80% - 20% between foreign and local investors respectively

South Africa: Top 40 -0.60%, Vols USD 1.4bn

The Top 40 ended the week 0.60% in the red. The Rand held steady against the dollar at 7.8045 despite the eurozone debt crisis looming in the background. Golds were up 0.64%, Financials edged up 0.24% and Banks increased by 0.51%.

Zambia: LuSE +0.81%, Vols USD 296k

The Luse reversed yesterday's losses to end the day 0.81% higher at 3897.57pts. The market recorded a turnover of ZMK1,482,760,359 equivalent to approximately US$296,552.The counters that traded today included CECZ, SCBL & ZMBF. The highest turnover was recorded by ZMBF which traded 500,000 shares at average of ZMK2950. The second was recorded by CECZ which traded 11,300 at an average price of ZMK666.53. Turnover was ZMK7,516,335.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.41%, Mining +0.80%, Vols USD 1.1m

The industrial index clocked a week of consecutive losses after losing -0.41% to 137.22pts in Friday and has lost a cumulative -2.92% week on week. Local selling in Delta saw the counter ease -1.45% to 68c, Innscor gave up -1.61% to 55.1c as Meikles continues on its downward trajectory losing -5.29% to 16.10c. Banking giant CBZ continues to be worst performing stocks among banks losing a further -5.67c to 8.49c on local selling and is already down -39.36% YTD, while ZB closed net sellers at 20c for the first in months.
There was an improvement in sentiment with gainers outnumbering losers by 12 to 9 but volumes remains largely depressed due to the minimal participation of local institutional investors. Volumes declined to 5.8m units while value traded improved to $1.186m buoyed by back to back foreign trades in telecom giant Econet. Foreign investors accounted for 79% of sales in Econet after a cross of 176,000 units was executed at a steady price of 370c while Econet accounted for 71% of value traded from the 229,108 shares worth $847 800 that traded. Overall foreign investors accounted for 64% and 56% of buyside and sellside respectively and where net buyers by $90,322. Dually listed financial giant Old Mutual picked an impressive +5.90c to 155.90c buoyed by firm international prices coupled with the opening of the fungibility window which enables investors to uplift shares from the local register and arbitrage on the local discount. Old mutual is currently at 32% discount to JSE price. Property counters were investor favorites as all four closed the week firmer: Dawn rose 5.63% to 0.75c, Pearl put on +0.31% to 3.21c while Mash and ZPI were 4.17% and 5.45% up a 2.5c and 1.16c respectively. The mining index added +0.8% to 80.82pts after a 12.50% gain in Falgold at 7c but trading remains very thin with only 4137 units trading.