Movers & Shakers: March 20, 2014

Botswana: DCI -0.15%, USD 648k

Some reasonable activity in Gaborone today. Most of the action took place in Letshego (225t) followed by Choppies (400t) and Barclays (380t).

Egypt: EGX 30 +2.08%, USD 235m

The market witnessed another rally led by notable buying accumulation from institutional investors, leaving the EGX30 to end the day up +2.08%. Market volumes also notably improved today to trade the highest YTD, the market traded a total turnover of USD235. After the EGX30 breached the 8,350 points supported by local investors, international institutions stepped in the market aggressively lifting the market higher targeting mostly blue-chips on FTSE re-balancing, were name such as COMI, ETEL and GTHE witnessed massive volumes leaving each to end the day up 3.23%, 4.64% and 4.01% respectively, its worth mentioning that international institutional participation accounted today accounted for a recored of 21.12% of the total turnover.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.08%, USD 9.5m

Local investors dominated the local bourse again as strong local buying in Safcom (+1.6%, KES 12.50) pushed the index marginally higher. EABL rose to KES 259 on the back of renewed strong foreign buying. Local demand lifted the banks as we saw KNCB rise to KES 46.50 and EqBnk increase to KES 31.50.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.12%, USD 1.46m

A much quieter day in Port Louis with MCB once again the most active stock. The banking giant rose by 35bps to Rs216 while SBM closed unchanged at Rs1.07. The losers in the Sem-7 were NMH (-1.27%, Rs78) and Terra (-26bps, Rs37.80 while Alteo rose by 29bps to Rs34.10.

Nigeria: ASI +0.46%, USD 23.5m

The most notable theme today was the aggressive buying that returned in the banks. The sector gained 3.41% on the back of strength in the Tier 1 names. The leaders were GTB (+8.2%, N25), UBA (+4.3%, N6.99) and FCMB (+4.8%, N3.25). The banks also saw some decent activity throughout the session. Consumers slipped by 85bps with weakness in Cadbury (-8.6%, N78), PZ (-5%, N32.30) and UACN (-5%, N58.90). In the cements Wapco saw a chunky cross go through as the name fell by 82bps to N109.10. Oando was strong today as it gained 5% to N14.56.

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

South Africa: Top 40 -0.34%, USD 3.1bn

The JSE was weak again today as the Rand fell against the major currencies. At the time of writing, the ZAR was at R10.95, R18.06 and R15.07 vs the USD, GBP and EUR respectively.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.84%, Mining +1.61%, USD 650k

The Industrials losing streak continued today as the mainstream index lost a further 84bps while market activity remains lethargic. Econet was a big component of today’s weakness as the Telco lost 1.49% to 63c while Delta slipped by 78bps to 119c. Innscor also lost ground as it dropped by 1.43% to 69c and BAT shed 83bps bps to 1200c. Foreign activity remains subdued.

African Currencies