Movers & Shakers: May 18, 2012

Botswana: DCI +0.02%, Vols USD 130k

The DCI inched up 0.02% to end the day at 7146.59pts. Turnover stood at USD 130k. Barclays picked up 1t to end the day at 711t. G4S increased by 2t to finish at 592t while Stanchart traded 5t higher at 920t. Letshego didnt see any action today.

Egypt: Closed today

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.59%, Vols USD 4.18m

EABL back to prominence again today and dominated trading from a value traded point of view with 530k shares changing hands in the name thanks to a few large crosses. Equity Bank was rather active with a total of 3.23m shares traded in the name. KNAL continued to rally today after yesterday's announcement by Virgin Atlantic with the counter gaining 3.73% to close at 16.70. It was good to see some decent activity in BATK again with 140k shares traded thanks to a large cross. Uchumi rallied for a seventh straight day and reached its strongest level in more than six years, closing at 18.00 as the company expanded and the value of retail trade increased. Foreigners were net sellers, accounting for $1.90 of total sales while they accounted for $1.69m of total purchases.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.29%, Vols USD 1.9m

Activity picked up today, largely due to crosses in the two big banks, SBM and MCB. The two banks accounted for 85% of all activity on the exchange. MCB managed to collect +59bps during the session but SBM lost -60bps. The rest of the market was reallly quiet indeed with NMH and Rogers the other two price movers from the SEM-7 losing -2.67% and -1.49% respectively.

Nigeria: ASI -0.55%, Vols USD 13.71m

No disruptions to trading today. The level of activity was really weak again, a combination of the global issues and the lack of any local catalyst after the hightened activity post results has subsided. There was a small bounce in the mkt towards the end of the session to move off the days lows and close -0.55% worse for the day. The banks were largely in-line with the general mkt sentiment, closing -41bps lower. The majority of the limited action that did take place centred around the banks where UBA, Zenith, FBN and GTB were the most active. Oustide of UBA, Zenith and Access the banks were painted in red today. It is worth noting that DangF lost -4.94% on the day after about 10 days of soaring.

South Africa: Top 40 -1.25%, Vols USD 1.64bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 1.25% to close at 29,212 while value traded amounted to USD 1.64bn. Financials were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 1.92% followed by Industrials and Resources which fell 1.72% and 0.20% repsectively. The Rand was trading at 8.33 and 10.57 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE -0.11%, Vols USD 200k

Very little activity in Zamibia outside the $150k Zambeef that traded, the name closed at ZMK 2800 which is +0.11% better than the previous session. Stanchart was the other contributor to the value traded, $37k - no price change. AELZ and Puma lost -2.78% and -2.63% respectively.

Zimbabwe: Industrial -0.02%, Mining -3.90%, Vols USD 1.15m

Decent day in Zimbabwe again with value traded amounting to USD 1.15m. There was a cross of 110k Econet that went through at 4.20. Delta was active yet again with 510k shares crossing at 0.70 which seems to be the level in the name for now. The Inudustrial Index closed the day slightly lower, falling 0.02% to close at 131.64 while Miners fell 3.90% to close at 80.26.