Movers & Shakers: March 11, 2014

Botswana: DCI unch, USD 968k

Almost the entire market today was Choppies as just over 2m shares traded at 400t. Outside of this there was some action in Sefalana (755t).

Egypt: EGX 30 +1.67%, USD 162m

The market managed to regain its bullish momentum leaving the EGX30 to end the day up 1.67% to close at 8,109.48 points. Market volumes improved significantly relative to average turnovers, as the market traded a total turnover of USD 162m. With increased chatter regarding El-Seesi's resignation next week, the market witnessed a wave optimism with names such as TMGH, EKHO and ETEL trading above-average volumes, leaving each the end the day up 2.89%, 2.73%, and 2.12%, respectively. ETEL is due to announce 4Q results tomorrow. HRHO witnessed notable volumes to end the day up 3.25% at EGP12.71 after the company stated it has a “robust” IPO pipeline in Egypt.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.56%, USD 6.1m

Activity picked up in Nairobi today but still nothing to write home about as value traded amounted to $6.1m. Kenya Commercial Bank was the day's most active stock as foreigners drove activity in the counter with 2.41m shares traded. A large cross in BATK (local buyer and local seller) helped boost activity as 135k shares changed hands. Foreign demand drove activity in Kenya-Re as there were a few decent crosses in the counter with the insurer gaining 1.1%.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.02%, USD 614k

The banks continue to rally as we saw MCB rise by 23bps to Rs214 and SBM higher by 95bps to Rs1.06. Losers in the Sem-7 were NMH (-31bps, Rs80.25) and IBL (-91bps, Rs109). Please note tomorrow is a public holiday in Mauritius and the market will be closed.

Nigeria: ASI +0.25%, USD 23.13m

After yet another quiet start in Lagos we saw activity pick up throughout the session. The Banks were on the front foot until late in the session when some selling in the Tier 1 names pushed the sector down by 50bps. The losers included ETI (-3.3%, N14.50), FBNH (-2.3%, N12.50) and GTB (-3.2%, N25.16). The consumers saw some chunky trading in Nestle (unch, N1026.35), Guinness (+4.8%, N180) and NB (-67bps, N148.50). The cements were also pretty active with the big names seeing decent volumes, DangCem gaining 1.3% to N240 and Wapco rising by 81bps to N111.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +0.75%, USD 1.41bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.75% to close at 43,055 while value traded amounted to USD 1.41bn. Resources were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 1.19% followed by Industrials which gained 0.80% while Financials fell 0.30%. The Rand was trading at 10.78 and 14.97 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.17%, Mining unch, USD 640k

The reporting season which is currently in full swing has failed to neither provide stability nor creating a positive trajectory on the ZSE as the financials reported so far have been largely mixed therefore coming short of stimulating demand on the bourse. The market has been experiencing swings since consummation of the year which are mainly skewed towards the downside in tandem with the plummeting economy. On a year to date basis the ZSE is currently in losses of 7.3% at 187.40pts. Meanwhile today’s session recorded a net negative payoff of 0.17% weighed by heavies Delta and Econet which lost 0.13% and 0.06% to 122.24c and 66.96c respectively.

African Currencies