Movers & Shakers: March 19, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.13%, USD 43k

Another depressing day in Botswana as just scraps traded in a few of the names with nothing of substance to report.

Egypt: EGX +0.88%, USD 43m

The market managed to continue with a mixed sentiment to end the day in positive territory, the EGX30 ended the day up 0.88% to close at 5,242.55 points. Market volumes remains weak yet with a slight improvement to recent turnovers, the market traded a total turnover of USD 43m. The market witnessed a notable rally at open to reach a high of 5289.76 points up more than 1.50% this is mainly attributed to the ongoing market chatter regarding OCI reached a settlement with the tax authority, yet after med-session OCIC witnessed notable selling to reach EGP228.25 after trading at a high of EGP240, the market followed OCI sentiment and selling was quite evident across the market. Names such as OTMT, ETEL and HRHO witnessed notable selling mainly from international institutions, each ending the day down 2.56%, 0.61% and 1.20% respectively.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 32.38 mn EGP and were 34.36% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 34.80 mn EGP and were 61.43% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Sellers by 2.42 mn EGP and were 4.21% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by 13.53 mn EGP and were 45.03% of the market.
•  Retail were net Buyers by 13.53 mn EGP and were 54.96% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.12%, USD 8.5m

Equity turnover jumped 113.4% with local investors dominating trading accounting for 54% of trades. The NSE 20 index eased 0.12% with 22 of the counters traded gaining, 16 declining and the rest remaining unchanged. Buoyed by local investor demand Equity Bank was the day's top mover accounting 26% of volumes. The counter gained 2.6% to KES 29.75 recouping some of the losses made in previous sessions. Despite strong foreign investor demand Safaricom continued to decline, easing 0.8% to KES 5.95. Of the other top movers foreign investor were net buyers in Scan Group (+0.7%) and net sellers in Co-op Bank (+0.7%). CIC Insurance led the top gainers list climbing 6.7% to KES 5.60. CFC Stanbic extended its gains edging up 3.6% to KES 57.50. On the losing end Uchumi reversed yesterday’s gains on profit taking, slipping 2.4% to KES 20.75.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.19%, USD 1.5m

Both indices gave up ground as profit taking came in on a couple of counters. MCB fell 77bps to Rs194 as sellers came in after the strong recent run. ENL Land dropped by 1.33% to Rs 44.50 while Terra gained a modest 13bps to Rs39.55.

Nigeria: ASI +0.17%, USD 18.62m

Another quiet day in Lagos. The day started extremely quietly but did pick up slightly as the session progressed. Banks were again mixed with no real conviction shown either way. Some of the notable outliers were Diamond (-1.52%, N7.14) and FCMB (+2.67%, N5.00). NB saw decent volumes once again with approx. $1.5m changing hands to close up 55bps at N167. Nestle also saw some good action yet closed down 94bps at N842. Other consumers were mixed – on the positive side was Cadbury (+4.15%, N35.10) while fallers included Flourmills (-1.92%, N76.50), PZ (-3.66%, N39.50) and Dangote Sugar (-1.81%, N8.15).

South Africa: Top 40 -0.40%, USD 1.90bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.40% to close at 35,809 while value traded amounted to USD 1.90bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 1.24% followed by Industrials which fell 0.22% while Financials gained 0.78%. The Rand was trading at 9.25 and 11.96 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE -0.13%, USD 7.3k

Zambia back to it's old tricks today with value traded amounting a paltry USD 7.3k. The only name with any form of activity worth mentioning was CEC (USD 4.7k).

Zimbabwe: Inudsutrials -0.39%, Mining unch, USD 1.29m

Stocks continued to ease into Tuesday trades in a light session. The industrial index slipped 0.39% to 185.21points weighed down by losses in Delta, Hippo, Innscor and Meikles despite recoveries in Econet which closed 3.09% higher at 67.11c. Gainers and losers were tied at 6 stocks apiece. Trading activity remained light as volumes dropped 8% to 2.69m shares from the 20 active stocks while turnover was almost flat at $1.29m on limited foreign participation. Foreign sales dropped 695 to $0.328m while purchases eased 365 to $0.63m. DZL, FBC and Turnal were all steady at previous levels ahead of their separate results presentations tomorrow. The mining index was stuck at 64.79 points after Rio was unmoved at 45c. Bindura, Hwange and Falgold recorded no trades. Announcing the results of the referendum this Tuesday afternoon, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Chief Elections Officer, Lovemore Chipunza Sekeramayi said 3,079,966 voted YES against 179,489 who voted NO.

African Currencies