Movers & Shakers: July 25, 2013

Botswana: DSE +0.02%, USD 303k

Better day in Gaborone thanks to a cross of 1m Letshego which accounted for 88% of todays turnover with value traded amounting to USD 303k. Unfortunately the market was rather dull aside from the Letshego cross.

Egypt: EGX -0.13%, USD 34m

The market witnessed a mixed sentiment session to end the day slightly lower leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 0.13% to close at 5,352.56 points. The market traded weaker volumes compared to recent market turnover were the market witnessed improved turnover, the market traded a total turnover of USD 34m. After yesterday's sell off following the army speech and calls for mass protests tomorrow, the market opened the day the notable negative sentiment to reach a low of 5,280.26 points were names such as AMER(-1.96%), COMI(-1.12%) and EGTS(-1.11%), yet in the last hour of trading institutional investors triggered a wave of buying in the market were names such as PHDC, ESRS and TMGH managed to last print up 2.11%, 3.80% and 1.26% respectively.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Buyers by 3.97 mn EGP and were 82.26% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Sellers by 11.36 mn EGP and were 11.30% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Buyers by 7.38 mn EGP and were 6.44% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Buyers by 34.32 mn EGP and were 22.95% of the market.
•  Retail were net Sellers by 34.32 mn EGP and were 77.04% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.18%, USD 4.9m

A rather quiet day in Nairobi as turnover fell 28% with foreign investor participation declining to 38% of trading compared with 53% in the previous session. The index gained 18bps for the day. Safaricom was the most active stock accounting for 21% of volumes with local investors dominating trading on the counter. Foreign investors were net buyers in EABL, Nation Media, KCB and Barclays. KCB saw mild profit taking today after witnessing a rally in previous sessions easing 0.6% to KES 42.25. Total Kenya extended its losses slipping further 1.6% to KES 15 while KenolKobil recouped its losses gaining 3.5% to KES 8.85. Home Afrika continued to witness selling pressure, easing 1.3% to KES 18.75.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.20%, USD 176k

Unbelievably slow day in Mauritius today with value traded amounting to a paltry USD 176k. The only name worth mentioning was MCB as a total of 12k shares changed hands in the name with the counter closing flat at 186.75.

Nigeria: ASI -0.72%, USD 18.3m

Some activity towards the end of the session livened up a pretty dull day. At the start the banks continued their weak trend from yesterday but buyers came into the sector throughout the day yet the banks still eventually closed down 1.11%. However, the sector was not in freefall as it was yesterday. Consumers also struggled as the sector closed down 1.45%. The biggest losers in the sector were NB (-1.15%, N170.01) and Nestle (-4.9%, N950). Nestle released their H1 figures early in the session. The cement sector saw a couple of crosses go through with both Dangcem (+1bp, N190) and Wapco (unch, N99.50) among the highest turnover stocks for the day.

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

South Africa: Top 40 -0.35%, USD 1.28bn

Red across the screen on the JSE as all sectors closed in the negative. At the time of writing the rand was trading at R9.80, R15.02 and R12.96 vs the USD, GBP and EUR respectively.

Zambia: LuSE unch, USD 23k

Zambia back to its usual antics today with value traded amounting to USD 23k. The only name with any form of activity was ZNCO as 191k shares traded in the counter.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.18%, Mining +0.87%, USD 1.57m

Fresh demand emerged in today's trades with 11 gains being recorded against 4 losers and 15 unchanged. Improvement in activity saw blocks in mid to lower tier stocks changing hands including Astra (1m), Barclays (1.6m), FBCH (3.3m) and NTS (3.2m) with volumes heaving +127% to 8.4m. Similarly turnover jumped +220% to $1.57m with dominating contributions of $0.8m in Delta, $0.39m in FBCH, $0.1m in Barclays and $0.11m in NTS. The market strength was also attributed to resurgent foreign participation with buys of $0.7m and sales of $0.8m. The positive mood resulted in 0.18% recovery in industrials to 227.5 pts. Similarly Minings were up +0.87% to 66.30 pts as BNC clawed back +2% to 2.45c and Hwange +0.6% to 17.6c. Heavy weight gains of the day were seen in telecoms giant Econet up +0.75% to 67c as investors braved reports that POTRAZ has launched investigations against the company following complaints of unfair business practices by competitor Telecel. Continued interest in NTS saw the tyre company post a +24.6% price jump to 3.5c and bringing YTD gains to +16.7%. Insurance company Fidelity followed having added +8.3% to 13c. Agro processors Colcom and DZHL were firm +5.7% to 37c and +4.1% to 25c respectively while ZPI added +4.4% to buyers price 1.2c.

African Currencies