Movers & Shakers: July 03, 2013

Botswana: DCI unch, USD 259k

Drastic slowdown in activity in Gaborone today with value traded amounting to USD 259k. FSG accounted for 87% of turnover today as 1.09m shares changed hands in the counter.

Egypt: EGX -0.32%, USD 43m

The market witnessed some profit booking today lead by notable selling from institutional investors (International and GCC) leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 0.32% to close at 4,971.06 points. The market traded improved volumes relative to recent turnovers, the market traded a total turnover of USD 43m. The market started the day with a notable selling pressure to reach a low of 4,898.68 points, it by med-session the market witnessed a decent rebound lead by local retail investors targeting names such as PHDC(+7.95%), OTMT(+2.38%) and CCAP(+4.78%), It seems that local investors still believe that the situation will be contained and the army will be in control, while foreigners and institutions are still concerned on escalations to end the day as net sellers, targeting names such as COMI, ETEL and ORTE each ending the day down 2.92%, 1.09% and 0.95% respectively. Its worth mentioning that local institutions ended the day as net-buyer.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 30.90 mn EGP and were 20.88% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 55.37 mn EGP and were 70.78% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Sellers by 24.46 mn EGP and were 8.34% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by 46.60 mn EGP and were 31.93% of the market.
•  Retail were net Buyers by 46.60 mn EGP and were 68.06% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 +-.02%, USD 6.2m

Overall foreign investors accounted for 62.9% compared to 67% of trades the previous session. Initially, the market opened weak with some negative sentiment as the VAT Bill got tabled in Parliament, and which is likely to raise trading fees by 16%. The market recovered in the afternoon, seeing that the overall impact would minimal compared to say a capital gains tax. I&M Bank did not trade as the bank announced an interim dividend of KES 1.90, an announcement which comes shortly after relisting. The fast growing commercial bank plans to raise capital soon. Barclays notched 0.6% higher as Barclays Plc issued a circular to transfer its shares in the Kenyan unit into Barclays Africa. The transfer has no impact on Barclays Kenya minority shareholders. KenolKobil lost 1.1% even as Tullow Oil announced a new discovery in Kenya and upgraded the resources in place to at least 250m barrels. Trades on oil marketer however improved on foreign investor buying.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.47%, USD 817k

Better day in Mauritius from an activity point of view but still nothing to write home about with value traded amounting to USD 817k. The increase in turnover came on the back of block trades in MCB and NMH as a total of 32k shares and 52k shares traded in the names respectively. Both banking heavyweights closed the day lower with MCB falling 0.40% while SBM fell 0.97%. NMH was also under pressure and closed at 70.

Nigeria: ASI -0.26%, USD 25.84m

Pre-arranged cross trades in the normally illiquid stocks Transcorp and IHS dominated an otherwise very quiet day in Lagos. Outside of these 2 stocks the market did not even trade $10mill in turnover as the Nigerian bourse starts H2 off slowly especially with the US holiday later in the week. The banks fell by 1.28% as profit takers pushed the sector down. However, volumes were extremely quiet so difficult to gauge the actual sentiment in such thin markets. Tier 1 banks were the weakest while Tier 2 banks outperformed. The consumers ended the day unchanged and witnessed hardly any action in any of the stocks. We expect the rest of this week to remain subdued.

Please note that the index figure above is correct at the time of writing.

South Africa: Top 40 -1.21%, USD 1.5bn

Red screens dominated global markets today and South Africa was no exception. All sub-indices were down with Golds yet again hit hard. The Rand continues to straddle the same levels and was trading at R10.08, R13.12 and R15.41 vs the USD, EUR and GBP respectively at the time of writing.

Zambia: LuSE +0.09%, USD 283k

Decent day in Lusaka (relatively speaking) after the long weekend with value traded amounting to USD USD 283k thanks to a cross in CEC (1.88m shares) which accounted for 99% of turnover. There was not much else to speak of unfortunately.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.98%, Mining -2.54%, USD 1.25m

The ZSE posted a comeback recording positive gains in the Industrials to close at 211.2pts a 0.98% gain from yesterday. The Mining Index on the other hand suffered a 2.54% swipe to 70.12pts on losses in Hwange which shed 8.57% to 16c. Gains were buoyed by recoveries in heavy cap Delta OK and African sun among others. Increased foreign demand in Delta stimulated a +1.85% surge for the beverages manufacturer to 140c. African sun recovered 10% to 2.2c after an earlier knock prior to their results presentation last week. OK on the other hand recovered 5.5% to 23.22c after announcing a partnership with a South African company Kawena involving cross border shopping deal ahead of their AGM later in the month. Other gainers for the day were Hunyani which put up 60% to 4c after reporting improved profitability from continuing operations in their half year to April 2013. CFI who are planning to sell 49% of their shareholding in Victoria foods to a south African company surged 7.69% to 7c. Elsewhere General Beltings firmed 40% and closed at 0.07c to sum up the top risers for the day. Other top losers for the day were Turnall which dropped 9% to 5c. Sugar refiner Star Africa eased 7% to 1.3c after announcing a withdrawal of their cautionary statements and that they are putting on market their logistics arm and also offloading their Tongatt hullets Botswana shareholding as part of measures to extinguish their debt. Zimplow and Old Mutual were the other notable losers softening 0.2% and 1.87% to 5c and 210c respectively. Other indicators took a northward retreat with foreign demand surging by 219% to $0.7m while turnover increased 49% to $1.25m.

African Currencies