Movers & Shakers: March 29, 2012

Botswana: DCI -0.06%, Vols USD 150k

BIHL and Sefalana saw all the action today on the BSE with the duo accounting for 96% of the day's turnover. 45,912 shares traded in BIHL at 1050t. BIHL was unchanged at 280t on 200,000 shares. Letshego traded on 1,002 shares at 150t. Cresta traded level at Rs110. The DCI ended 0.06% in the red at 7038.69pts.

Egypt: EGX 30 -0.43%, Vols USD 72m

The market managed to end the day in negative territory, leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 0.43%, to close at 5122.54 points. Volumes were within resent average volumes, market traded a total turnover of USD 72M. The market started the day with a positive sentiment , to trade more than 1% higher to reach a high of 5430.70 points, yet after 30min of trading the market changed its trading sentiment to trade negatively to reach a low of 5018.44, the main reason behind the weakness today was the disappointing announcement regarding Dejezzy:s valuation, which stated the price is yet to be negotiated , investors were optimistic about the news as it was expected to be a catalyst to the market, which was quite evident in yesterday’s session.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 58.30 mn EGP and were 25.07% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 78.21 mn EGP and were 65.43% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Sellers by 19.90 mn EGP and were 9.5% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by 68.14 mn EGP and were 37.80% of the market.
•  Retail were net Buyers by 68.14 mn EGP and were 62.19% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.21%, Vols USD 2.37m

Rather quiet today with value traded amounting to a rather disappointing $2.37m. Equity Bank and Kenya Commercial Bank were yet again amongst the biggest contributors towards value traded with 1.65m and 3.87m shares changing hands in the names respectively. There were no real noticeable crosses in the two names to talk about, both counters did however close lower with EQBNK falling 1.54% to close at 19.20 while KNCB fell 1.11% to close at 22.25. Equity Bank signed a $101m agreement with the International Finance Corp to help fund lending to the agriculture industry. KNAL announced that it has received commitments for almost 70% of the 1.48bn shares on sale for its rights offer (which begins on April 2). Foreigners were once again net buyers accounting for $1.53m of total purchases while they accounted for $510k of total sales. The market ended the day lower with the NSE 20 Index falling 0.21% to close at 3,360.12.

Mauritius: Semdex +1.15%, Vols USD 844k

The market remained active with total turnover at Rs24.5m. The Semdex edged up 1.15% while the Sem-7 ended 1.55% higher. Terra reached an all-time high of Rs41.50, up 6.41% to Rs41.50. On the banks level, SBM gained 1.88% to close at Rs81.50 with 125,710 shares trading in the name, yielding turnover of Rs10.2m. MCB traded 0.62% higher at Rs163. On the the hotel front, NMH increased by 1.42% to Rs71.50, Sun up 1% to Rs40.30. Conglomerate, Rogers traded 3.25 in the green at Rs319. ENL increased by 1.45 on thins.

Nigeria: ASI -0.96%, Vols USD 11.60m

Very quiet day in Nigeria today with total value traded amounting to $11.60m. IBTC released rather disappointing full-year 2011 results with profit after tax falling 21.3%, the market did not like these numbers with the name closing limit down at 6.80. Ecobank Transnational released pleasing full-year 2011 results with profit after tax increasing 56.9% with the name rallying 2.27% to close at 11.25. There were two noticeable crosses in Guinness early on with 402k shares crossing at 228.42 and 300k at 229.05. The market closed lower with the ASI falling 0.96% to close at 20,700.19 while the Bank10 Index fell 0.81%.

South Africa: Top 40 -0.50%, Vols USD 1.51bn

The JSE followed world markets lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.50% to close at 29,566 while value traded amounted to USD 1.51bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 0.69% followed by Financials and Industrials which fell 0.58% and 0.23% respectively. The Rand was trading at 7.75 and 10.29 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.82%, Mining -1.13%, Vols USD 1.2m

Persistent selling pressure in beverages group Delta that closed the day down 1.99c or -2.93% weighed on the market to see the main stream industrial index come off -0.82% to 135.50pts. Econet remained the market’ favorite stock after contributing 55% of the value of trades from the trading of 175738 shares at an improved price of 380c. Amongst the stocks contributing to market losses were Border down -33.35 to 10c, Meikles that came of -6.67% to 14c, PPC that traded -1.96% lower at 250c, and Barclays that dropped -0.25% to 3.99c. Natfoods traded 4.35% lower at 110c as the previous demand that saw it peak at 125c early in the week seem to have all but died down. The mining index shed 1.13% to close at 86.01 points following losses in FALGOLD that was down -6.82% at 10.25 c.