Movers & Shakers: July 24, 2013

Botswana: DSE +0.04%, USD 30k

Nothing happened in Gaborone today as volumes hit dire levels. The most active name was Sechaba which closed at 1725t while BIHL, Choppies and Engen saw muted action.

Egypt: EGX -1.69%, USD 60m

The unrest continues to be an overhang on the market especially after clashes escalated yesterday, investors traded the day with a negative sentiment lead by notable profit booking from retail investors leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 1.69% to close at 5,359.57 shares. The market continues to trade improved volumes, the market traded a total turnover of USD 60m. The market witnessed profit booking today on the back of growing fear of escalation this comes after defense minister speech where he called Egyptian to go for a mass protest next Friday to give him the required legitimacy to face terrorism. Local retail investors were the major sellers today this comes after weeks of being net-buyers, names such as PHDC, OCDI and CCAP witnessed notable pressure leaving each to end the day down 4.44%, 4.73% and 3.60% respectively.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 1.17 mn EGP and were 16.31% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Sellers by 4.83 mn EGP and were 77.48% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Buyers by 6.01 mn EGP and were 6.21% of the market.
•  Institutions were net buyers by 12.61 mn EGP and were 29.67% of the market.
•  Retail were net Sellers by 12.61 mn EGP and were 70.32% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.06%, USD 6.7m

Activity continued to improve in Nairobi today after a rather slow start with value traded amounting to $6.7m on the back of an increase in foreign participation (53%). Kenya Commercial Bank ($2.14m) drove activity thanks to a few large crosses with foreigners on the purchase side of the counter ahead of the bank's H1 2013 results which are expected to be relased soon. Equity Bank ($1.77m) was also rather active as foreigners were prevelant on both sides of the name. Safcom managed to bounce back a bit today after some recent profit taking with the counter gaining 0.7% to close at KES 7.05.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.10%, USD 1.05m

A more pleasing day in terms of activity today in Port Louis as turnover rose above $1m. The Sem-7 gained 29bps with an impressive 3.1% gain in ENL Land leading the charge. The only other mover in the Sem-7 was MCB which gained 13bps to Rs186.75.

Nigeria: ASI -0.87%, USD 28.55m

It was a much better day in Lagos in terms of activity with two-way flow improving drastically as value traded amounted to $28.55m. On a negative note; banking stocks came under some serious pressure after the MPC announced an increase in the CRR of 50% as the Bank 10 Index fell -3.90% being dragged lower by both Top-tier and Mid-tier banks as the likes of Diamond Bank (-8.15%), First Bank (-5.89%) and Zenith Bank (-5.53%) were amongst the worst performers. Consumers however managed to close on the front foot with the Consumer Goods Index gaining +0.94% thanks to Nigerian Breweries (+2.99%) which managed to bounce after a recent slide. From a turnover point of view it was the banks that were the most active with First Bank ($6.49m) and Guaranty Trust Bank ($4.06m) being the most active.

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

South Africa: Top 40 -0.76%, USD 1.40bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.76% to close at 36,373 while value traded amounted to USD 1.40bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 1.20% followed by Financials and Industrials which fell 0.90% and 0.41% respectively. The Rand was trading at 9.74 and 12.90 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +0.10%, USD 102k

A second consecutive day with big volumes – by Lusaka standards. Almost all today’s volume was in Zambia Sugar which closed at K0.35 while Puma and CEC witnessed minor trading.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.08%, Mining -0.94%, USD 490k

Activity eased in Wednesday trades with turnover dipping 66.1% to $0.49m and volumes down 9.07% to 3.71m shares. Foreign investors were also on the sidelines with inflows of $2,718 and outflows of $248,835 being recorded. Consequently the industrial index slipped by a marginal -0.08% to 227.10pts. Weighing on the market were losses of -2.8% and -12.5% in Afdis and Colcom respectively with both settling at 35c having reversed yesterday’s gains. Banking group NMBZ succumbed -18.2% to 9c on $270 worth of trades while electrical engineering and hardware retailer Powerspeed slid -5% from its peak price of 2c. The Mining index shed -0.94% to 65.76 pts on the back of losses in gold miners Falgold which gave up -25% to 9c as the group continue to struggle after poor results to March 2013 on the back of declining international gold prices. Coal Miners Hwange gave up -0.6% to 17.5c.

African Currencies