Movers & Shakers: May 03, 2013

Botswana: DCI -0.03%, USD 126k

Not much went on in Gaborone today and therefore there is not much to speak of with value traded amounting to USD 126k as most of the activity was from FNBB as a total of 204k shares traded in the name.

Egypt: Closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.69%, USD 7.6m

Despite opening the day on a losing streak, the equities market strengthened through the session to end the week on a positive note. Equity turnover fell 28.8% with foreign investors accounting for 61.1% compared to 37% of trades in the previous session. Safaricom was the leading mover on the back of improved trading activity in the telco ahead of results. Whereas foreign investors remained net buyers with locals selling, there was some further profit taking which started coming through from other foreign investors. Equity Bank was among the large movers as well with surprisingly strong foreign investor disposal, with these investors seeming to rotate into the market by buying into KCB Bank. Scangroup, marketing services, notched 3.8% higher with the bulk of trading being by foreign investors for both buying and selling interest.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.08%, USD 634k

Rather slow day to end the week with value traded amounting to a dissapointing USD 634k. MCB was the only real name to speak of and drove activity with 67k shares changing hands in the name with the counter gaining 1.04% to close at 195.00 while SBM came under pressure and fell 0.97% to close at 1.02. Nothing going on in NMH as only 5k shares traded in the counter.

Nigeria: ASI +1.77%, USD 33.82m

Solid end to the week with value traded amounting to $33.82m. This should however be taken with a pinch of salt as a very large percentage of this was thanks to UBA as there was a rather large cross of 351m shares at 7.00 that went through early in the session. Banks in general were strong today with the Bank 10 Index gaining 1.14% thanks to Fidelity (+5.82%) which goes ex-div on Monday and Access (+4.40%). On the consumer front both Nestle and and Nigerian Breweries released Q1 2013 results with NB gaining 0.93% while Nestle closed the day unchaged. The consumer sector closed higher with the Consumer Goods Index gaining 0.80%.

South Africa: Top 40 +1.75%, USD 2.03bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 1.75% to close at 34,963 while value traded amounted to USD 2.03bn. Resources were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 2.97% Followed by Industrials which gained 1.44% while Financials fell 0.19%. The Rand was trading at 8.91 and 11.70 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +0.41%, USD 336k

Solid day (relatively speaking) to end the week with value traded amounting to USD 336k thanks to a cross in SCB. The names that traded included BATZ, CEC, LAFA, SCB, ZAMBREW, ZMBF, ZNCO an ZSUG. SCB was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 216k. ZMBF was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 59k.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +1.54%, Mining unch, USD 870k

Industrials ended the week 1.54% firm at 191.96pts while minings were unchanged at 71.09pts with trades taking place in Hwange and RioZim. Despite remaining below the $1mn mark, value traded went up 29.23% to $0.87m with a major boost coming from improved local participation. Despite the 14.12% decline in foreign purchases to $0.3 million, foreign flows remained in a net inflow position of $0.228m. Volume traded also registered a proportionate 32.30% to close at 3.25mn. Coal miners Hwange reported to be engaging forensic auditors to look at its historical debt was firm 7.69% to trade at 14c following long standing firm bids which culminated into today’s trade.

African Currencies