Movers & Shakers: July 27, 2012

African Currencies as at GMT 15:30

Botswana: DCI unch, USD 14k

It seems to be a three day weekend in Gaborone today. The market traded only $14k after only two names traded. Choppies traded -1t lower at 162t while Stanchart traded +3t higher at 935t.

Egypt: Market closed for the day

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.21%, USD 4.28m

Decent day in Nairobi with value traded amounting to $4.28m. Kenya Commercial Bank was exceptionally active after posting good results yesterday with 8.16m shares changing hands thanks to a cross of 6m shares that went through early on as foreigners accounted for 54% of purchases and 78% of sales. Another rather decent day in Safcom as 14.64m shares traded as foreigners accounted for all of the volume on both sides of the name. Equity Bank also posted results yesterday but acitvity in the name was rather muted as 1.17m shares traded. Foreigners were net sellers and accounted for $2.83m of total sales while they accounted for $2.36m of total purchases. The market closed lower with the NSE 20 Index falling 0.21% to close at 3,870.51.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.25%, USD 675k

The market on The Island closed the week on a high, +0.25% although there wasn’t too much activity to speak of. SBM was the most active name (several crosses), accounting for just over 50% of the total activity. Three of the names from the SEM-7 traded higher SBM, NMH and Terra, +0.61%, +1.52% and +0.52% respectively.

Nigeria: ASI +0.76%, USD 8.22m

The mkt in Lagos opened marginally higher before trading marginally lower for most of the session and then taking a dive towards the latter end of the day. The mkt activity has fallen back below the $ 10m dollar figure again with little two-way trading to speak of. 20 stocks advanced, 19 declined and 50 remained unchanged. The highest value of trades were in Zenith, NB, GTB, FBN, and Guinness. The top tier banks were mixed while the mid-tier names took a beating – only red on the board. The cement names put in a strong performance, most notably heavyweight DangC +3.45%. Unilever closed +3.24% higher. Unilever H1 2012 results: Turnover: +1.20%, PBT: -2.75%, PAT: +4.69%. Food & bev names Cadbury and DangS lost -1.33% and -3.62% respectively. NB remains active and range bound – closing at 117.00.

South Africa: Top 40 +1.16%, USD 1.63bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 1.16% to close at 30,508 while value traded amounted to USD 1.63bn. Financials were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 2.03% followed by Industrials and Resources which gained 1.45% and 0.04% respectively. The Rand was trading at 8.19 and 10.15 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +0.04%, USD 581k

Good day in Lusaka today with value traded amounting to USD 581k. The names that traded included CECZ, INVE, ZSUG and ZNCO. ZSUG was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 580k. CECZ was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded amounting to USD 1k.

Zimbabwe: Industrial Index +0.35%, Mining +0.96%, USD 1.4m

The equities market continued with its run closing the week in the positive recoding its fourth consecutive rally. The industrial index was spurred on by Econet, Innscor and OK while gains in Rio helped the mining index climb +0.96% to 118.18points. Econet rose 0.63% or 2.70c to 428c ahead of its AGM. INNSCOR gained 1.72% to 59c; while MEIKLES advanced 3.01% to 17.1c. Retail group, OK added a marginal 0.09% to 11.51c. The group reported a revenue growth of 31.5% to $117m for Q1, 49% growth in EBIT while gross margins were maintained. AICO AFRICA slipped 1.14%c to 9.50c. Market activity remained buoyant though volumes dropped from yesterday’s unusual peaks. Turnover stood at $1.4m from 11.3m shares supported by Delta trades while foreign purchases and sales accounted for 64% and 57% of the turnover respectively. In the resources sector RioZim rose by 2 cents to 57 cents whilst Bindura, Falgold and Hwange were unchanged at previous trading levels.