Movers & Shakers: March 24, 2014

Botswana: DCI +0.05%, USD 216k

Not much on the go in Gaborone today as value traded amounted to USD 216k with some action in Sefalana (128k shares) and Choppies (168k shares).

Egypt: EGX 30 -0.54%, USD 123m

The market witnessed some profit booking today lead by institutional investors, leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 0.54% to close at 8,405.46 points. The market traded low volumes relative to recent turnovers, with total turnover of USD 123m. The market witnessed some profit booking after trading in the greens over the last couple of sessions, with names such as COMI, ESRS and HRHO witnessing notable selling pressure, each ending the day down 1.44%, 0.66% and 0.84% respectively. Names such as SKPC, MNHD, and TMGH managed to hold their ground and trade against market sentiment, each ending the day up 2.00%, 5.05%, and 0.24%, respectively.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.22%, USD 4.6m

It was a rather average start to the week in Nairobi as value traded amounted to USD 4.6m with foreigners (54.2%) dominating proceedings. Safcom was the most active stock on the day as foreign demand (67.6%) drove activity while the telco fell -2.0%. Foreign selling (64.6%) dominated Kenya Commercial Bank as the name closed unchanged at KES 46.75 on 1.27m shares. I&M Bank reported FY13 results with a 28.3% increase in net profits to KES 6.1bn.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.07%, USD 5.69m

An absilutely massive day in Port Louis today as value traded amounted to USD 5.69m thanks to a cross of 15.3m Bluelife at Rs9.00 which was done on the crossing board. There was also some action in MCB (35k shares) and IBL (79k shares). Today was the last day to trade in MCB as the name will be suspended for the name change (MCBG) until and including the 3rd of April.

Nigeria: ASI -0.50%, USD 20.99m

A large cross in ETI ($5.37m) helped boost activity on an otherwise uneventful day as value traded amounted to $20.99m. There was some decent activity in Zenith ($2.09m), NB ($1.92m), FBNH ($1.63m) and Oando ($1.45m). Banks came under a fair amount of pressure as the index fell -1.96% with Zenith (-8.41%) and FBNH (-3.61%) being the major drags on the sector. Consumers (+0.18%) managed to close in positive territory thanks to good performances in Dangote Sugar (+9.88%) and Guinness (+3.14%). It was a rather dull day in the cements with the majority of the names closing unchanged.

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

Zimbabwe: Industrials -1.68%, Mining -0.31%, USD 1.34m

The mainstream index fell 1.68% to 178.06pts on Monday. The decline is the second largest daily loss year to date as the current bearish trend spans 7 days to date. The fall in the index today comes against the appointment of seasoned banker, CBZ chief executive officer, John Mangundyah to the helm of the central bank replacing Gedion Gono whose term expired in 2013. The news has failed to inspire demand and confidence in the market despite media reports suggesting endorsement of the appointment by industry players. At large the liquidity crisis remains untamed, while aggregate demand has fastly been withering across the economy. The central bank governor has a daunting task of refocusing the apex bank to its core business ensuring imminent interbank trading among other functionalities. Value traded surged 166% to $1.34m on volumes of 29.42m shares. Delta led value contributors at 43% while Cottco was the top volumes contributor accounting for 95% of the total shares traded. Foreign portfolio inflows at $0.61m were 46% of the overall turnover while foreign outflows stood at $0.48m resulting in a net foreign inflow of $0.13m.

African Currencies