Movers & Shakers: July 12, 2013

Botswana: DCI -0.14%, USD 355k

Letshego (228t) and Choppies (300t) once again dominating turnover in Gaborone as both names saw some action. The banks FNBB (364t) and Stanchart (1150t) also saw some mild activity. Please note that the matket will be closed on Monday the 15th and Tuesday the 16th for public holidays.

Egypt: Closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 +1.33%, USD 8.0m

Equity turnover eased 9.2% during the session with foreign investor participation climbing to 68.9% from 56% in the previous session. Safaricom and KCB Bank were the largest movers of the day, together accounting for 53.7% of the market. BAT reported 1H13 results with EPS up 11.5% to KES 15.66 with net revenue broadly unchanged. DPS declared for the interim period was unchanged at KES 3.50 with books closure on 14 August 2013 and payment on or around 16 September 2013. Safaricom inched 2.2% higher on generally positive sentiment among investors for the telco which has kept supply at lower prices to a minimum. TransCentury shed 1.5% lower as the normally quiet counter moved 1m shares ahead of 1H13 results. Local investors were the main participants in the infrastructure company which has exposure to Civicon. Civicon has various interests including transport, roads, mechanical and civil engineering and is an active participant Lokichar where Tullow has discovered oil in Kenya. Uchumi Supermarkets bulked a losing streak experienced earlier in the session to end the day flat on foreign investor buying.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.59%, USD 451k

After yesterday’s strong day the Port Louis bourse once again lost ground today on dire volumes. The Sem-7 fell by 61bps and only 2 stocks in the Sem-7 actually moved, and both lost a lot of ground. SBM fell by 97bps to Rs1.02 while NMH lost 4% to close at Rs65.25.

Nigeria: ASI +0.13%, USD 18.39m

Another relatively quiet day in Lagos. The banks had another strong day as foreign demand for the sector (particularly Tier 1 names) drove the sector higher. All Tier 1 names closed in the green, led by Zenith (+2.36%, N20.79) and Access (+1.99%, N11.30) while Access witness a chunky cross of 48m shares. Consumer stocks were much more subdued today with UACN gaining 7.24% to N58.50 on strong foreign demand. Outside of this name the sector was rather quiet. In the cements, we saw Wapco active for the third straight day and eventually closed down 1bp at N99.98.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +0.40%, USD 1.31bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.40% to close at 36,227 while value traded amounted to USD 1.31bn. Financials were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 0.90% followed by Industrials which gained 0.71% while Resources fell 0.33%. The Rand was trading at 9.97 and 13.02 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +0.09%, USD 11k

Absolutely dull day to end the week with value traded amounting to a dire USD 11k. Apart from a few trades in the likes of SCB ($5k) and PRIMA RE ($4k) there is nothing much to report.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +1.18%, Mining unch, USD 2.35m

The ZSE defied election odds with the mainstream index soaring +1.18% on yesterday to 223.89pts to close the week 0.14% ahead of previous 11 June 2013 record high of 223.58pts. Strong demand in beverages Delta which firmed +1.37% to 148c on a block trade worth circa $0.8m spurred the upsurge in the industrials. Elsewhere other heavy caps sustained their momentum to give the industrials urge with innscor adding 1.03% to 98c, OK rising +3.41% to 27c. In a similar fashion the mining gained 0.56% to 66.94 pts. Daily turnover increased 44.2% to $2.35m with 64% being attributed to Delta. Another sizeable block was seen in CBZ which traded unchanged at 14.12c to contribute 13% to value while the remainder was distributed across the market. Volumes traded however took an 88.8% dip in direct contradiction to turnover at 6.9m shares reflecting the quality of stocks traded today. Foreign demand improved 167% to $0.8m while foreign sales was up 261% to $0.46m.

African Currencies