Movers & Shakers: March 06, 2014

Botswana: DCI -0.09%, USD 815k

Things slowed down in Gaborone today as value traded amounted to USD 815k with Choppies (946k shares) and Turnstar (1.16m shares) driving activity.

Egypt: EGX 30 -0.94%, USD 125m

The market did not manage to hold ground after yesterday's price run, which was led by continuous profit booking from local institutions, leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 0.94% to close at 7,949.60 points. Volumes were slightly weaker than recent turnovers, as the market traded a total turnover of USD 125m. Considering the speculative buying on Sisi running for president was relatively priced in yesterday, the market witnessed profit booking mainly lead by local institutions targeting names such as TMGH, HRHO and ESRS leaving each to end the day down 1.72%, 1.68% and 1.34% respectively. GTHE continued to witness pressure after the 4Q loss widened to USD748.8 million from USD468.9 million, ending the day down 2.52%. Local retail investors continued to be net buyers targeting mostly mid/small caps such as APSW(+5.51%), RREI(+3.85%) and ACGC(+3.73%).

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.13%, USD 10.4m

High foreign activity in EABL, Safcom and KNCB today. The lion's share of activity was inS afcom as the name gained 90bps to KES 11.80 despite high foreign selling. EABL gained 40bps to KES 264 on the back of strong foreign buying. Both banks were string with KNCB gaining 1.7% to KES 44.75 and EQBNK rallying by 3.9% to KES 33.25.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.06%, USD 1.41

It was a decent day in Port Louis as value traded amounted to USD 1.41m. MCB drove activity as 82k shares traded in the name thanks to a few crosses. There was also some action in the likes of NMH, Alteo and ENL.

Nigeria: ASI -0.47%, USD 21.92m

The roller coaster ride in consumer stocks continued today as the Index fell -1.03% with Flour Mills (-6.52%) taking a hammering while Nigerian Breweries fell (-1.66%) after going ex-div today. Banks (-0.39%) came under a bit of pressure with Access (-4.94%) and UBA (-2.20%) being the hardest hit while Guaranty Trust Bank managed to gain +1.42%. Activity slowed down as value traded amounted to $21.92m with Zenith Bank ($6.12m), WAPCO ($1.64m) and Access ($1.61m) being amongst the most active.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +0.66%, USD 1.5bn

SA followed global markets into positive territory with all sectors gaining ground for the day. The rand remains resilient and was trading at R10.62, R17.78 and R14.70 vs the USD, GBP and EUR respectively at the time of writing.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.48%, Mining -9.21%, USD 2.71m

The index fell by a further 48bps today. Mining fell by a mammoth 9.52% after Hwange fell by 50%. In the main index there was softness in Innscor which slipped by 4% to 75c despite some good results showing good top and bottom line growth. OK Zim fell by 6% to 17c while Econet inched slightly higher to 66.15c. Foreign activity was also slightly higher than previously.

African Currencies