Movers & Shakers: March 08, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.11%, USD 345k

A much livelier day in Gaborone as turnover jumps up due to some decent size trading in Choppies and Sefalana which closed at 255t and 400t respectively. Some other names traded in small sizes.

Egypt: Market closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 +1.60%, USD 4.7m

The benchmark NSE 20 share index climbed 1.6%, with turnover notching 3.1% higher ahead of a closely contested election which puts the Jubilee coalition candidate ahead of CORD. The market hopes for a first round win otherwise uncertainty for another month ahead of a rerun could pose some challenges. Whereas foreign investors were net sellers during the day, local institutions were keen buyers. BAT Tobacco was the leading mover accounting for 20.9% of volumes, easing just 0.2%. Safaricom touched a new year high of KES 6.1 but on thin volumes. CFC Stanbic Bank climbed 7.1% as investors continued responding positively on robust FY12 numbers released during the week. Mumias Sugar and KCB were among the leading gainers of the day. Both Mumias and KCB saw local investors being net buyers. KenolKobil saw renewed foreign investor buying, which accounted for 72.8% of total purchases of the day. The oil marketer inched 0.9% higher, but remai ns 18.5% below the price before news of the profit warning and termination of takeover negotiations with Puma Energy.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.09%, USD 1.2m

A pretty quiet day to end the week as just $1.2m changed hands. MCB continues to grind higher as the name closed up 13bps at Rs190.25. SBM joined the party and closed up 98bps at Rs1.03. The only other names in the Sem-7 that moved were Alteo Limited (+29bps, Rs34.70) and Bramer Banking (+2.78%, Rs7.40). Air Mauritius gained 4.48% on the day to Rs14.00.

Nigeria: ASI +0.23%, USD 33.29m

Pleasing way to end the week today from an activity point of view with value traded amounting to a rather respectable $33.29m. Banks led the charge in terms of both activity and performance with Guaranty Bank (+0.04%) and Zenith Bank (+0.46%) being the biggest contributors towards volume with foreigners prevalent on both sides of the names while Fidelity (+2.23%) and Access (+1.77%) led in terms of performance as the Bank 10 Index gained 0.42%. Consumers put in a good show with both Nigerian Breweries and Guinness closing unchanged but were very active as foreign and local investors got stuck in while the consumer index gained 0.10%. PZ Cussons put in a very good show with the counter gaining 6.26%.

South Africa: Top 40 -0.07%, USD 1.58bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.07% to close at 36,168 while value traded amounted to USD 1.58bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 0.98% while both Financials and Industrials gained 0.39%. The Rand was trading at 9.11 and 11.84 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: Market closed for a public holiday today.

Zimbabwe: Inudsutrials +0.58%, Mining unch, USD 670k

The mainstream industrial index closed the week higher reversing losses from previous two session albeit in light Friday trades. The industrial index rose 0.58% to 190.96points helped by gains in Delta, Old Mutual, Hippo, CBZ and Natfoods despite further losses in Econet and Innscor. On a week on week basis the equities market is 3.36% higher. Trading activity was at its lowest for the month after volumes slumped 59% to 5.07m shares while value traded declined 69% a paltry $0.670m. Foreign participation was minimal with purchases declining 11.5% to $0.25m while foreign sales dropped 85% to $0.086m. The mining index was unchanged at 70.08 points but closed the week 2.38% higher. Bindura, Falgold and Rio were unchanged at previous trading levels.

African Currencies