Movers & Shakers: March 30, 2012

Botswana: DCI -0.02%, Vols USD 12k

The weekend came to soon on the BSE with USD 12k worth exchanging hands today. The index fell 0.02% to 7037.51pts. The market only recorded trading in four counters, Barclays, BIHL, Letshego and Stanchart. Barclays contributed 76% of the day's turnover with 10,000 shares trading unchanged at 704t. Stanchart was the only counter to record movement today, ending 1t higher at 912t on 1,111 shares. BIHL was unchanged at 1050t. Letshego saw 2232 shares trade in the name at 150t.

Egypt: Closed today

Ghana: Vols USD 124k

Value traded on the Ghanaian Stock Exchange amounted to USD 124k. CAL was the biggest contributor towards value traded (47.44%) with the name closing at 0.25 Cedi. SIC was the second biggest contributor towards value traded (25.92%) with the counter closing at 0.38 Cedi.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.20%, Vols USD 2.79m

Another rather quiet day in Kenya with value traded amounting to $2.79m. Safcom was the biggest contributor towards value traded with a large cross of 17m shares going through early in the session, the buyer was foreign while the seller was local, a total of 28m shares traded in the name. No surprise to see the two big banks amongst the biggest contributors towards value traded with 2.7m shares trading in KNCB and 923k shares changing hands in EQBNK, unfortunately there were no substantial crosses to speak of. Inflation eased for the fourth month in a row, coming in at 15.6%, putting pressure on the central bank to lower borrowing costs. Foreigners were net buyers accounting for $2.05m of total purchases while they accounted for $940k of total sales. The market closed the day higher with NSE 20 Index gaining 0.20% to close at 3,366.89.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.68%, Vols USD 1.3m

The market witnessed increased activity today with turnover at Rs38.6m. Both indices ended the week on a positive note with the Semdex up 0.68% and Sem-7 up 0.84%. MCB was up 1.23% at Rs165, reaching a high of Rs166 with 68,283 shares crossing the floor. Other Banking stock SBM traded 1.23% higher at Rs82.50. NMH increased by 1.40% to Rs72.50. Other gainers were United Basalt up 3.7% and Omincane up +1.4%. Lux Island eased 1.3% to Rs22.70 on 22,500 shares. Sun Resorts gained a mere 0.03% on its last cum div session to end the day at Rs40.40.

Nigeria: ASI -0.15%, Vols USD 13.95m

Quiet in Lagos today with value traded amounting to a disappointing $13.95m. Banking stocks Guaranty Bank and Zenith Bank were once again amongst the most active with a few decent sized crosses going through in both names. Nigerian Breweries started the session of well with a cross of 500k shares going through at 97 and then another cross of 150k shares at 97. There was also a cross of 100k Guinness that went through at 230.20. Diamond Bank released very bad results during the session with profit after tax coming in at -N11.254bn, the name surprisingly only closed the day slightly lower falling 0.83% at 2.38 with 103m shares changing hands. The market closed the day lower with the ASI falling 0.15% to close at 20,724.89 while the Bank10 Index fell 0.25%.

South Africa: Top 40 +0.12%, Vols USD 1.62bn

The JSE ended the day slightly higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.12% to close at 29,603 while value traded amounted to USD 1.62bn. Resources were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 0.48% followed by Financials which gained 0.21% while Industrials fell 0.09%. The Rand was trading at 7.67 and 10.22 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +0.36%, Vols USD 21k

Quiet day in Zambia with value traded amounting to $21k. The names that traded included AELZ, CECZ, INVE, REIZ, SCBL, ZNCO and ZSUG. ZNCO was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to $17k. ZSUG was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to $1k.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.93%, Mining -1.16%, Vols USD 2.8m

The Industrial index reversed its misfortunes ending the week 0.93% higher. Turnover stood at USD2.8m skewed towards Delta and ABCH. ABCH recorded a special bargain of 528,066 shares at 80c. Delta saw some 3.2m shares trade 2c higher at 68c. Insurer - Old Mutual picked up 4c to end the day at 170c on 19,920 shares. PPC lost 5c to 245c. On the mining's side. Bindura and Hwange dragged the index down 1.16% to 85.01pts. Bindura down 0.15c at 1.86c while the coal produce lost 0.40c at 26c. Falgold traded unchanged at 10.25c.