Movers & Shakers: July 24, 2012

African Currencies as at GMT 15:30

Botswana: DCI unch, USD 43k

It was a quiet and uneventful day in Gaborone. The market traded sideways with $43k worth of stock trading. Four counters traded on the day, BIHL, Choppies, FNBB and Sefalana. There were no price changes.

Egypt: EGX 30 -1.00%, USD 71m

The market ended the day on a negative note leaving EGX30 to end the day down 1.00% to close at 4,819.33 points. Market traded decent volumes, market traded a total turnover of USD 71m, its worth mentioning that OTMT continues to lead the market in terms of turnover, the name accounted for more than 24% of the total turnover. The market today opened on a up tick relatively unchanged on low volumes, yet by med-session started to witness notable selling this was mainly attributed to the news that president Morsy Assigns Hisham Kandil(current minister of water resources) to form new government, the market is reacted negatively to the news as investors were expecting more transparency on the new PM.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 135.87 mn EGP and were 32.42% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 128.76 mn EGP and were 62.28% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Buyers by 7.10 mn EGP and were 5.30% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by 33.50 mn EGP and were 51.31% of the market.
•  Retail were net Buyers by 33.50 mn EGP and were 48.68% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.03%, USD 3.86m

There was a decent pick up in activity today with value traded amounting to $3.86m. EABL was once again the front runner in terms of value traded with a total of 400k shares changing hands as foreigners accounted for 97% of sales and 76% of purchases. Kenya Commercial Bank was relatively active with a total of 2.18m shares traded thanks to a few crosses as foreigners accounted for 68% of purchases. There was also a decent amount of activity in Equity Bank as 2.07m shares traded with locals dominating both sides of the counter. Foreigners remained net buyers and accounted for $1.44m of total purchases while they accounted for $1.06m of total sales. The market closed very flat with the NSE 20 index gaining 0.03% to close at 3,845.93. TransCentury reported H1 net income of $3.87bn.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.02%, USD 626k

The Semdex inched lower to 1,743.69pts. MCB (56% of turnover – mostly crosses) mostly traded at Rs167 but edged down to Rs166 (-0.6%) during late trading while SBM (16%) recovered to Rs82. NMHL and untraded SUN remained flat at respective Rs66 and Rs34.30. Rogers remained at a level Rs305 while IBL rose to Rs79 (+0.6%) and TERRA slid to Rs38.80 (-0.5%) during late trading.

Nigeria: ASI -0.91%, USD 14.76m

The market opened sideways and continued on this path for most of the session until it fell quite sharply towards the end, eventually closing at 23,169. The bigger banks accounted for the lion’s share of the activity with Access Bank the standout performer +4.2% and UBA the only loser, -2.1%. FBN’s Q2 results were released quite late in the session today which showed a +25.65% increase in top line and +125.59% increase in PAT. The name was the most actively traded counter today and closed at 11.86 which is a +0.51% increase on the day. Heavyweight cement company DangC weighed heavily on the overall market performance as the stock price fell, -3.93%, PZ lost -3.77% while another Dangote name DangS also fell, -4.62%. Flourmills and UACN were notable winners +4.76% and +1.74%. Nigeria’s Current Account Surplus Doubled in the First Qu arter. MPR unchanged at 12%. CRR increased to 12% from 8%.

South Africa: Top 40 +0.63%, USD 1.18bn

The JSE closed the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.63% to close at 29,868 while value traded amounted to USD 1.18bn. Resources were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 0.63% followed by Industrials and Financials which gained 0.61% and 0.09% respectively. The Rand was trading at 8.49 and 10.26 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE -0.35%, USD 154k

Better day in Lusaka today thanks to crosses in CECZ and AELZ with value traded amounting to USD 154k. The names that traded included AELZ, CECZ, FQM, NATB, PUMA, SCBL and ZNCO. CECZ was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 70k. AELZ was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 53k.

Zimbabwe: Industrial Index +0.23%, Mining +0.12%, USD 1.9m

The equities maintained positive trading today after the European Union lifted developmental aid restrictions on Zimbabwe but maintained “targeted travel and financial sanctions” pending the outcome of a “peaceful and credible constitutional referendum”. The industrial index rose 0.30 points or 0.23% to close at 132.59 points while the mining index rallied 0.12 points (0.11%) to close 107.46 points. Gains dominated losers for the second session as foreign participation remain the mainstay of the market. Turnover increased 6.8% to $1.9m of which foreign purchases accounted for 66% ($1.2m) and sales 60% ($1.1m). The bulk of the funds were invested into Delta, Innscor and Econet. In the resources sector Bindura added 0.10c to 3.10 cents while Falgold and Hwange unchanged at previous trading levels. Falgold closed net sellers a t 40c for the first time in months.