Movers & Shakers: July 19, 2012

African Currencies as at GMT 15:30

Botswana: DCI +0.04%, USD 21k

The market was characterised by thin trading today with only USD 21k worth crossing the floor. Cresta traded 5t higher at 110t. Engen picked up 1t to 516t while Sechaba closed 8t higher at 1310t.

Egypt: EGX30 +1%, USD 49m

The market ended the day on a positive note leaving the EGX30 to end the day up 1.00% to close a 4867.75 points. Volumes has improved relative to recent turnover, market traded a total turnover of EGP301m in which more than 20% of the total turnover was attributed to OTMT alone. Local retail investors started to increase their exposure in the market aggressively after being notable net-sellers yesterday, this came after a Egyptian court ruled no jurisdiction on the constitution decree which lifted some of uncertainty towards the political road ahead of Egypt giving investors a clearer outlook regardless of the verdict. OTMT continues to lead the market in term of turnover, the name started the day with negative sentiment yet after 30min of trading the former witnessed notable buying to trade positively, it’s worth mentioning that OTMT got lifted on 50m shares in the last 30min of trading to trade at limit up (+10%)at EGP0.44.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 14.29 mn EGP and were 25.86% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 27.15 mn EGP and were 63.35% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Sellers by 12.86 mn EGP and were 10.79% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by 18.41 mn EGP and were 36.27% of the market.
•  Retail were net Buyers by 18.41 mn EGP and were 63.72% of the market.

Kenya: ASI +1%, USD 4.6m

The equity market today witnessed heightened trading, majority on seven stocks including EA Breweries, Safaricom, Athi River Mining, Equity Bank, and CIC Insurance. Turnover USD 4.6m with equal participation from local and foreign investors but foreign skewed to the buy. The benchmark NSE 20 Share Index gained 1.0%. EA Breweries continued on its upward trend, trading actively and emerging as the day’s top trader in terms of turnover. The counter touched a new high of KES 230.00, gained 1.3% to close at an average price of KES 227.00 on the back of heightened foreign investor appetite. The banking sector today showed revitalized trading compared to yesterday’s session mainly attributable to investors paying up to capture liquidity on the counters as bank deposit rates fall. Improved trading was noted on Equity Bank to see the stock gain 1.1% to KES 22.00 on a volume of 1.8m shares. Athi River Mining returned some of this week’s losses as the share price edged up 8.8% to emerge as the day’s top gainer. Foreign investors continued to accumulate on Safaricom, pushing up the counter price by 2.7% to an improved average price of KES 3.85.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.12%, USD 3.7m

The market witnessed increased activity with just under USD 4m worth trading today. Turnover was geared towards Terra, MCB and SBM. Terra saw crosses of 400k and 600k at Rs39. A total of 167,805 MCB shares were traded at Rs167. SBM lost 0.61% at Rs82 on 305,000 shares. 118.5k shares were traded in NMH, out of which 100k were crossed at Rs64. The name closed the day at that price level. Moroil traded at Rs26.

Nigeria: ASI -0.77%, USD 20.37m

The 6 day rally ended today with vols somewhat better. The majority of the activity was centered around the usual suspects NB, FBN, ZENITH, GTB and UBA. There were no results released during the session today but Oando did release number at the close. The results don’t look great at first glance with revenue up significantly but this did not translate in bottom line growth, in fact PBT was down 19.74%. The names traded unch today, closing at 14.69. FBN, UBA and Zenith lost -2.63%, -4.35% and -1.18% respectively while GTB and Access managed to eke out a gain amongst the all the red. Heavy weight DangC was a big drag on the mkt -2.16%. The food and bev names continued to find support, Cadbury +1.03%, DangS +4.86% and Nestle +1.00%.

South Africa: Alsi +0.75%, USD 1.4bn

The JSE, like world markets stood firm today closing +75bps better off and with activity levels a bit higher than they have been. The central bank cut rates by 50bps which was unexpected but didn't seem to affect the market. The golds and banks did not fare as well as the mkt, losing -1.34% and -0.77% respectively. The Industrials were the biggest gainers +1.21% followed by the resources +0.72%

Zambia: LuSe +0.60%, USD 28k

The Luse ended the day 0.60% higher on thin vols. SCB traded 7.96% higher at K2.8. ZSUG was up 1.06% at K285. ZABR edged down 0.04% at K1,144 while Zanaco lost 4.38% at K160.

Zimbabwe: Industrial Index +0.17%, Mining +0.21%, USD 2.4m

The industrial index rose 0.17% to 132.27points while the mining index added 0.21% to 101.89points. Activity on the local bourse improved significantly as value traded rose to $2.4m from $0.723m buoyed by foreign participation which accounted for 77% and 89% of the sales. Foreign purchases rose to $1.9m while sales stood at $2.2m supported by back to back trades in Delta and Econet. Delta traded 1.49% higher at 68c. Barclays put on 3.23% to 3.2c, PPC added 1.94% to 210c while Innscor advanced a marginal 0.02% to 56.01c. StarAfrica rose a further 12.50% to 0.9c. Medtech lost 80% to 0.01c. Tractive power slipped 18.27% to 8.99c, Powerspeed lost 14.29% to 1.2c. CBZ, AICO and Meikles were the only heavy caps to trade in the negative after AICO retreated 1.10% to 9c, Meikles dropped 11.76% to 15c while CBZ was 4.67% lower at 10.2c.