Movers & Shakers: July 15, 2013

Botswana: Closed for the day.

Egypt: EGX 30 +0.09%, USD 41m

The market traded with a mixed sentiment today to end the day slightly higher, leaving the EGX30 to end the day up 0.09% to close 5,313.80 points. The market continues to trade very weak volumes yet a slight improvement yesterday’s volumes, the market traded a total turnover of USD 41m. The market started the day with a negative sentiment with local retail and international institutions as net sellers perusing the market to reach a low of 5,290.78points, yet in the last hour of the session local and international institutions managed to turn be net buyers changing the market sentiment to trade in the greens, targeting names such as ETEL, JUFO and ESRS each ending the up 1.82%, 3.02% and 0.78% respectively. It’s worth mentioning that retail investors along with GCC institutions ended the day as net-sellers(after being net buyers over the last couple of weeks) targeting names such as AMER, CCAP and EGTS each ending the day down 3.70%, 2.14% and 2.13% respectively.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Buyers by 5.50 mn EGP and were 23.58% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Sellers by 3.90 mn EGP and were 67.68% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Sellers by 1.60 mn EGP and were 8.74% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Buyers by 13.17 mn EGP and were 36.86% of the market.
•  Retail were net Sellers by 13.17 mn EGP and were 63.13% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.55%, USD 4.3m

The equities market started the week on a positive note with the NSE 20 index climbing 0.55% to close at 4,746.3 points despite volumes being somewhat subdued. Buoyed by active foreign investor trading, Safaricom and EABL continued to dominate the market, collectively accounting for 43% of the days volumes. Safaricom climbed 3.5% to its one month high of KES 7.30. Barclays bank continued to witness strong foreign investor interest, edging up further 1.7% to its 5 week high at KES 17.90. Transcentury extended its gains notching higher 6.2% to KES 34.50, ahead of 1H13 numbers set to be released in coming weeks. Liberty Insurance gained 3.8% to KES 12.35, driven by book closure of it KES 0.40 final dividend which was set for today. On the losing end, Oil marketers Total Kenya and KenolKobil reversed previous session gains, easing 3.6% and 1.16% to KES 15.90 and KES 8.50 respectively. Real estate firm, Home Afrika started trading in the market today. The firm which was listed on the Growth Enterprise Market Segment (GEMS) was introduced at KES 12, though the counter saw one block trade at KES 25.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.03%, USD 738k

Unfortunately there were no fireworks to speak of in Port Louis today with value traded amounting to an uneventful USD 738k. NMH hotels dominated from an activity point of view as a total of 163k shares traded thanks to a few decent crosses with the name coming under continued pressure, falling 0.38% to close at 65.25. MCB was very quiet as a total of 39k shares changed hands while 875k shares traded in SBM.

Nigeria: ASI +0.90%, USD 15.40m

It was an extremely dull start to the week in Lagos with value traded amounting to a very boring $15.40m. Other than a cross in Unilever ($1.98m) there was not much to talk about from an activity point of view. Banking stocks fared relatively well with the Bank 10 Index gaining 0.45% as First Bank (+2.25%) and Skye Bank (+2.51%) drove the sector higher. Consumer stocks were the pick of the day with the Consumer Goods Index gaining 1.49% as 7UP (+9.07%) and Guinness (+5.93%) really put in stellar performances.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +0.01%, USD 1.09bn

A bit of a nothing day in Johannesburg as the index barely moved and volumes remained low. The ZAR was trading at R9.90, R14.95 and R12.91 vs the USD, GBP and EUR respectively at the time of writing.

Zambia: LuSE +0.41%, USD 110k

Average start to the week (relatively speaking) with value traded amounting to USD 110k thanks to a cross in BAT (USD 101k). Unfortunately there was hardly any activity outside the BAT cross.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.41%, Mining +3.23%, USD 1.4m

Industrials raced to a new high of 224.89pts up +0.41% in week opening trades on selective demand. The rise was largely driven by gains in telecoms giant Econet +0.01% to 68.01c, sugarcane processors Hippo +1% to 105c, and diversified group Innscor +3.1% to 101.02c. In minings Hwange jumped +17% to 17.5c on sudden demand countering the -4% decline to 2.5c in nickel miners Bindura to see the resources index close +3.23% to the good at 69.1pts in early trades for the week. The market saw subdued activity for the day with traded value falling -43% to $1.4m. In line with recent investors trend to cherry pick in the heavy caps turnover spread was largely confined to top capitalized counters with Delta taking up 25% ($0.34m), Innscor 17% ($0.23m), Hippo 17% ($0.23m), OK 12% ($0.16m), CBZ 11% ($0.15m) while the rest of the trades were worth 18% ($0.24m).

African Currencies