Movers & Shakers: March 04, 2013

Botswana: DCI unch, USD 131k

A very uninspiring day in Gaborone as just $131k changed hands and the index was unmoved. Volumes were split across a variety of counters yet nothing special to note. The most active names were Barclays and Letshego (the latter closing up at 220t).

Egypt: EGX 30 -2.30%, USD 70m

The market witnessed notable selling today lead buy institutional investors (local and international), leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 2.30% to close at 5375.12 points. Market volumes improved significantly today relative to recent market turnovers, the market traded a total turnover of USD 70m. The market witnessed a sense panic today after a spokesman from the Public Prosecutor’s office announced Nassef Sawiris, CEO OCI, and his father Onsi Sawiris, former Chairman of the company, were banned from travel and placed on an arrivals watch list on allegations of a EGP14 billion tax evasion pertaining to the sale of Orascom Building Materials Holding (OBMH) to Lafarge SA back in 2007, OCIC ended the day down 2.74% on strong volumes. Names such as PHDC, EFIC and ESRS witnessed notable selling today, each ending the day down 6.61%, 5.09% and 4.76% respectively.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 13.65 mn EGP and were 24.56% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 2.32 mn EGP and were 68.01% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by 29.59 mn EGP and were 37.25% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by 29.59 mn EGP and were 37.25% of the market.
•  Retail were net Buyers by 29.59 mn EGP and were 62.74% of the market.

Kenya: Market closed for elections.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.06%, USD 3.1m

Turnover in Port Louis increased to a solid $3.1mill driven mainly by some action in the normally illiquid CFS which accounted for 84% of the session’s turnover, mostly through 2 chunky crosses. The main names were much more subdued than normal. Gainers in the Sem-7 included MCB, SBM and Alteo Limited while fallers were ENL Land, Terra and Bramer Banking.

Nigeria: ASI -0.71%, USD 26.86m

As global uncertainty continued today we saw some weakness in Lagos with the ASI falling 0.71%. The move lower was largely as a result of the fall in DangCem with the market heavyweight falling 2.02% on decent volume. Banking stocks were also rather weak with the Bank 10 Index falling 0.71% as Access (-4.27%) was the major drag on the Index on fairly thin volume. Guaranty Trust Bank however bucked the trend amongst the top-tier banks with the baking giant gaining 0.28%. Consumer stocks also started the week on a rather sour note with the Index falling 0.24% as the likes of Guinness (-2.35%) and PZ Cussons (-6.56%) came under a fair amount of pressure.

South Africa: Top 40 -0.80%, USD 1.69bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.80% to close at 35,368 while value traded amounted to USD 1.69bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 1.73% followed by Financials and Industrials which fell 0.70% and 0.20% respectively. The Rand was trading at 9.09 and 11.83 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +0.34%, USD 61k

Slow start to the week with value traded amounting to USD 61k. The names that traded included CEC, SCZ, ZAMBREW, ZAIN, ZCCM, ZSUG and ZNCO. ZSUG was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 56k. ZNCO was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 1.6k.

Zimbabwe: Inudsutrials +1.58%, Mining unch, USD 2.05m

ZSE stocks opened the week strong as awareness campaigns for the referendum slated for 16 March gather momentum. December reporting season which kicked off with CBZ last week is expected to go into full swing ahead of the deadline at the end of March. Big names led the gains as risers outpaced losers by 10 to 3. Investors continued to cheer the Econet share split as the stock rose an impressive 5.40% to a historic 76.1c bringing its YTD gains to 69.10%. Econet undertook the share split to improve liquidity in the stocks and true to the objective the stock has already seen more than three million shares exchange hands in two sessions. In today’s session Econet was the most actively traded stock after 1.9m units exchanged hands in trades worth $1,455,000. Trading activity was however lower as volumes declined to 6.35m shares. Back to back foreign participation in Econet and Delta helped maintain turnover above the $2m mark at $2.05m. Fore ign sales and purchases were 90% and 65% of value traded respectively. The mining index was steady at 68.45points after Bindura and Falgold closed unchanged at 2.1c and 13c respectively.

African Currencies