Movers & Shakers: March 14, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.02%, USD 10k

Extremely quiet day in Gaborone with value traded amounting to a dissapointing USD 10k as market breadth was very thin with only a handful of names trading. The market closed the day slightly higher with the DCI gaining 0.02% to close at 8,078.01.

Egypt: EGX 30 -2.08% USD 54m

The market continued with its bearish sentiment today lead by notable selling form international institutional investors, leaving the EGX30 down 2.08% to close at 5,207.21 points. The market continues to trade weak volumes yet an improvement to this week’s volumes, the market traded a total turnover of USD 54m. The market traded the day with a negative sentiment with ongoing political distress leaving international institutional investors worried about the ongoing economical woes on Egypt, names such as OCIC, COMI and ORTE witnessed notable selling today each ending the day down 4.42%, 2.09% and 2.80% respectively. Local retail investors continue to target med-caps stocks, name such as UNIT, RAYA and ACGC ended the day up 2.92%, 1.83% and 1.33% respectively.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 60.42 mn EGP and were 18.86% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 45.19 mn EGP and were 74.26% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Buyers by 15.23 mn EGP and were 6.88% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by 59.75 mn EGP and were 43.81% of the market.
•  Retail were net Buyers by 59.75 mn EGP and were 56.44% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 -1.62%, USD 8.3m

The equities market extended its losses with the NSE 20 index slipping further 1.62% to close at 4,831.85 points . Equity turnover fell 32%, with foreign investors dominating trading accounting for 70% of trades. EABL(-2.5%) was the day’s top mover accounting for 27% of volumes, driven by active foreign investor participation on both sides of the counter. Safaricom also witnessed active foreign investor participation, climbing 0.8% to KES 6.30. KCB and stanchart eased 1.3% and 0.7% respectively on net foreign selling. Barclays Bank led the top losers list easing 7.4% to KES 16.95 after book closure of it KES 0.7 final dividend yesterday. Insurance stocks dominated the top losers list with Kenya Re, CIC and Liberty easing 7.4% 7.1% and 5.7% respectively to KES 14.45, KES 5.25 and KES 9.05 respectively. The underwriters are expected to announce FY12 earnings figures soon. Britam edged down 5% to KES 8.50, despite announcing a 229% y/y rise in FY12 EPS. On the other hand Uchumi led the top gainers list climbing 4.9% to KES 21.50. NIC Bank recouped some of the losses made in previous session gaining 1% to KES 52.50. Other top gainers where on light trading.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.70%, USD 1.68m

It was rather refreshing to see another name dominate activity today and that came in the form of Terra thanks to a large cross of 850k shares at 39.50. MCB was very quiet (10k shares traded) as the name continued to trade up and close at 194.50 while SBM came under a bit of pressure and fell 0.97%. Hardly anything on the go in NMH today as only 200 shares traded. Tourist arrivals for February increased 2.3% to reach 81,185 visitors.

Nigeria: ASI -0.24%, USD 39.17m

Much better day in Lagos thanks to a number of very impressive crosses in a few of the counters as value traded amounted to an impressive $39.17m. UBA lead the charge in terms of activity as 140.37m shares traded in the name thanks to a few large crosses. There was clear profit taking in banking stocks as the Bank10 Index fell 0.63% with UBA (-1.67%) also leading the Index lower. Consumer stocks were relatively dull as the Consumer Goods Index fell 0.07% with Nigerian Breweries going ex-div today and trading at 166.00. Dangote Cement was very active as both foreign and local participants showed interest in the market heavyweight.

South Africa: Top 40 +0.12%, USD 1.87bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.12% to close at 36,372 while value traded amounted to USD 1.87bn. Financials were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 0.51% followed by Industrials which gained 0.19% while Resources fell 0.30%. The Rand was trading at 9.19 and 11.92 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE -0.39%, USD 248k

Much better day in Lusaka with value traded amounting to USD 248k thanks to a cross in ZNCO. The names that traded included CEC, FQMZ, PUMA, SHP, ZAIN, ZNCO and ZSUG. ZNCO was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 142k. SHP was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 27k.

Zimbabwe: Inudsutrials -1.22%, Mining -1.31%, USD 2.12m

Stocks fell further on Thursday dragging the ZSE mainstream index lower for the fifth consecutive session as December financials fail to provide the stimuli in a market dominated by profit taking. The industrial index eased 1.22% to 185.21points while the mining index gave up 1.31% to 67.23points. Telecoms giant, Econet eased 6.15% to 61c after reports that telecommunication companies will be required to pay $180m in converging 15-year licenses. Agro-concern, AICO was the biggest causality losing 23% to a 52-week low of 5c as investors ditch the stock after a profit warning statement issued in the past week coupled with uncertainty on progress of unbundling process. Volume traded dropped 75% but remained reasonable at 10m shares while turnover was 10% lower at $2.12m. Foreign participation accounted for the bulk of the trades as 89.6% of the purchases were foreign while foreign sales accounted for 82%. Favorite stocks among foreign investors are Econet, Innscor and DZL.

African Currencies