Movers & Shakers: May 07, 2013

Botswana: DCI unch, USD 403k

900k traded in Letshego accounting for the lion’s share of todays activity as the name closed at 258t. BIHL also saw some action with the name closing at 1050t.

Egypt: EGX 30 +1.82%, USD 52.5m

The market managed to continue with its positive momentum lead by notable institutional buying(mainly local and GCC) leaving the EGX30 to end the day up 1.82% to close at 5,375.63 points. Market volumes remains weak yet with a notable improvement to recent turnovers, the market traded a total turnover of EGP365m. The market traded with a bullish momentum lead by notable buying from local institutions yet it’s worth mentioning that international institutions started the day as notable buyer yet by med session they turned to be sellers, the rally was fueled by the positive news regarding the government settling with OCI on the Tax dispute issue adding to this the return of well know Naguib Sawiris(Ex-CEO ORTE). Names such as COMI, PHDC and ESRS managed to gain investors apatite to witness decent volumes to end the day up 4.17%, 3.69% and 3.13% respectively.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 9.01 mn EGP and were 23.21% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Sellers by 12.08 mn EGP and were 65.42% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Buyers by 21.09 mn EGP and were 11.37% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Buyers by 14.71 mn EGP and were 35.78% of the market.
•  Retail were net Sellers by 14.71 mn EGP and were 64.21% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.73%, USD 11.5m

The market had robust activity during the day with the three leading movers accounting for 75.3% of activity, with turnover touching USD 11.5m. KCB and Safaricom saw significant foreign investor purchases while Equity Bank saw some selling, which however did not dampen the momentum of the stock. EABL added 2.1% to KES 334 on the back of foreign investor purchases who have been persistent buyers on the counter. Infrastructure investment firm, TransCentury, was also active during the day on foreign investor purchases after being quiet for weeks. AccessKenya was suspended from trading after Dimension Data PLC made an offer to purchase the ISP. Offer documents will be sent to shareholders setting out details of the transaction and a deadline for acceptance or rejection of the offer. At the close of trading, the Monetary Policy Committee announced a 100bps reduction in the benchmark rate to 8.5% highlighting low inflation, stable currency and a strong growth outlook as reasons for the change.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.03%, USD 1.24m

A rather uninspiring day in Port Louis. The Sem-7 fell by a meager 7bps with the only faller being MCB (-1.04%, Rs191). This was offset by gains in NMH (+2.78%, Rs74), Alteo Limited (+13bps, Rs37.85) and Terra (+74bps, Rs40.80).

Nigeria: ASI -0.35%, USD 29.35m

A robust day in Lagos although block crosses still the bulk of the action. Banks gained a solid 1.06% today with the main outperformers being Access (+4.76%, N11), Diamond Bank (+4.55%, N6.44) and FCMB (+3.23%, N4.80) while Skye Bank (-3.21%, N5.12) the only notable faller. In the consumers, NB saw some aggressive buying and eventually settled up 1.1% at N165 while Nestle (unch, N910) and UACN (unch, N70) saw some chunky crosses go through. Market heavyweight Dangote Cement fell by 3.81% to N175.06.

South Africa: Top 40 +0.04%, USD 1.82bn

A very small uptick for the JSE Top 40 today despite weakness in Gold stocks. At the time of writing, the ZAR was fairly stable at R9.01, R11.80 and R13.94 v the USD, EUR and GBP respectively.

Zambia: LuSE +0.14%, USD 109k

As usual, nothing exceptional to report in Lusaka as just $109k changed hands, most of this taking place in AELZ, followed by Zanavo and CEC. The only stock that changed price was Zamefa (+2.08%, K0.50).

Zimbabwe: Industrial +1.35%, Mining +1.25%, USD 460k

Despite still subdued volumes, Tuesday trades saw the industrial index edging 1.35% higher to close at 195.29pts on the back of firm demand in heavy weight counters with gains being recorded in Econet 0.97c to 68c, Innscor 2.3c to 91.01c and OK 2.91c to 22.01c. The mining index was also 1.25% up to close at 71.98 pts buoyed by a 0.1c gain in Bindura to close at 2.9c. Activity on the market improved with value of trades registering 131% gain to $0.46m from yesterday’s $0.20m driven by Meikles which contributed $0.20m (43%) of value coupled with improved volumes that increased 217% to 2.83m shares. Liquidity received a boost from foreign investors in trades which closed net foreign buyers of $0.29m with inflows increasing by 822% to $0.31m and outflows 356% to $0.019m. With year to date gains of 60%, PGI and Masimba were today’s leading risers. PGI gained 100% to close 0.80c and Masimba put on 37% to 4.81c. Strong demand for retailer OK saw it firming 15.24% to an all time high of 22.01c as the OK Grand Challenge continues. Construction allied stocks Turnall and Pearl with respective -18.18% and nil YTD gain completed the risers with the former putting on 12.5% to 4.50c and the latter 3.7% to 2.8c. For Pearl, this comes after putting a notice to shareholders for an AGM with a resolution to seek share buyback. Fallers were confined to four counters with illiquid stocks Phoenix leading after shedding 40% to trade at 0.3c. Fidelity continued to trade sideways, losing 8.33% to 11c reversing yesterday’s gains. Banking stocks were not spared in today’s trades with CBZ currently range bound shedding 3.57% to 13.5c while FBC shed -2.50% to 7.80c.

African Currencies