Movers & Shakers: June 28, 2013

Botswana: DSE unch, USD 2.89m

Another cross in FSG of 6.7m shares (48% of turnover) drove activity once again with total value traded amounting to USD 2.89m. There was also some decent activity in Letshego (3.44m shares) and FNB (1.25m shares).

Egypt: Closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.30%, USD 2.1m

While volumes were very low during the session, the market started to make some modest gains. Turnover fell 62.7%. Foreign investor share of activity fell to 39.6% compared to 60.4% in the previous session. EABL, KCB and Safaricom were the leading movers as local institutions started to look at the market more actively. Their activity however went unnoticed as most fund managers were preparing for reporting. EABL managed to add 4.1% on trades which came during the afternoon session. Kenya Re surged 7.6% on block trading with both local and foreign investors remaining keen buyers of the stock. Downstream oil marketers continued heading lower with KenolKobil shedding 2.8% as Total lost 0.3% on weak demand. Kenya Power was unchanged as KenGen lost 1.6% as the two electricity utilities announced a change in their CEO’s in changes which were mostly expected. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics announced June inflation figures which rose to 4.9% from 4.1% in May. This was driven mainly by food, clothing and other household related price increases.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.07%, USD 634k

Rather slow day to end the week in Mauritius with value traded amounting to USD 634k. MCB gave up yesterdays gains and fell 0.27% to close at 186.00 while SBM closed the day unchanged at 1.03. Alteo drove the market in terms of activity with a total of 239k shares changing hands on the day.

Nigeria: ASI -0.85%, USD 29.69m

It was a rather slow session in Lagos for most of the day with activity only picking up in the last ten minutes thanks to a few crosses in the banks as value traded amounted to USD 29.69m. Banks managed to continue their rally with the Bank 10 Index gaining +0.37% thanks to Access (+3.81%) and Skye Bank (+3.24%). Consumers however closed the day lower with the Consumer Goods Index falling -0.33% as there was some profit taking in Nestle (-3.32%) and Flour Mills (-2.80%) while UACN (+7.55%) and Cadbury (+5.56%) bucked the trend in the sector. DangCem was however the major drag on the market with the heavyweight falling -3.19% to close at 182.00.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +1.14%, USD 2.07bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 1.14% to close at 35,051 while value traded amounted to USD 2.07bn. Industrials were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 1.56% followed by Financials and Resources which gained 1.46% and 0.44% respectively. The Rand was trading at 9.92 and 12.91 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +0.38%, USD 28k

Back to normal in Lusaka today with value traded amounting to a paltry USD 28k. PRIMA RE ($13k) and ZamBeef ($6.3k) are the only names worth mentioning that had some form of activity as the rest of the market barely traded.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.65%, Mining unch, USD 6.30m

The last session of the quarter ended with a bang as value of trades surged +796% from yesterday receiving a major boost from 51,577,175 FBC shares traded at 10c and worth $5.16m. This follows FBCH update at its AGM yesterday that it will sell its shareholding held in treasury to private equity firm Equator Investments for the purpose of capitalizing its microfinance unit. Foreign purchases registered a massive 1,672% jump courtesy of the FBCH buyer. Other notable contributions to turnover were in Econet at $0.4m and Mashonaland at $0.34m. The market however continued to see selling pressure in selected heavy weight stocks. Leading the losses was Barclays which shed -10% to 4.5c followed by global insurance giant Old Mutual falling -7% to 214c. Brewers Delta dropped -2.1% to 140c on $10,526 worth of trades with a bid coming at 235c. Meikles was down -1.6% to 31.5c while financial group CBZ eased -0.74% to buyers price of 13.5c. The above losses saw industrials further sliding -0.65% to 211.19pts.

African Currencies