Movers & Shakers: May 23, 2013

Botswana: DCI unch, USD 663k

Letshego accounted for the bulk of today's turnover thanks to a cross of 2.2m shares with total value traded amounting to USD 663k while market breadth was extremely thin as only a handful of counters traded.

Egypt: EGX -1.35%, USD 29m

The market witnessed notable selling today lead buy institutional investors (local and international), leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 1.35% to close at 5,343.21 points. Market volumes were significantly low relative to recent turnovers, the market traded a total turnover of USD 29m, its worth mentioning that more than 5% of total turnover was attributed to one cross in SWDY. The market witnessed notable profit booking lead mainly from international and local institutions targeting names such as EKHO, CCAP, and HRHO, each ending the day down 4.81%, 3.22% and 1.71% respectively, yet GCC institutional investors managed to support the market to end the day as the sole net buyers in the market. The real-estate sector witnessed notable selling the sector has witnessed notable interest lately, names such as PHDC OCDI and AMER witnessed notable selling to end the day down 1.72%, 2.95% and 3.664% respectively.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 11.05 mn EGP and were 16.27 of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Sellers by 6.80 mn EGP and were 74.11% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Buyers by 18.05 mn EGP and were 9.63% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by .352 mn EGP and were 31.51% of the market.
•  Retail were net Buyers by .352 mn EGP and were 68.48% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.53%, USD 3.7m

Equity turnover plunged 80.4% as institutions reduced activity during the session. The market was on a losing streak, following the global sell-off in risky assets. Foreign investors accounted for 34% of the day’s activity, up from 32.4% in the previous session. Some of the counters which had experienced heavy foreign investor buying particularly came under pressure. KenolKobil was the leading loser of the day on the back of diminished demand from foreign investors, although trading on the oil marketer remained robust courtesy of local investors. EABL went into reverse, easing 3.5% with volumes moved falling 93% as demand from foreign investors dried. Safaricom also declined 1.4%. Kenya Power notched just 0.8% lower, shrugging off concerns of potential legislation that would deregulate its distribution monopoly.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.05%, USD 550k

Rather slow day in Mauritius with value traded amounting to a dull USD 550k as foreigners were basically absent from the market. There were two decent crosses in CFS as the name accounted for 38% of turnover today. MCB was relatively quiet as 18k shares changed hands while SBM was completely dead as a mere 142k shares traded in the counter.

Nigeria: ASI -2.12%, USD 35.82m

Better day in terms of activity, but the day once again got off to a very slow start as block trading dominated the early part of the session with value traded amounting to $35.82m. Banks were the clear drivers behind demand and performance with the Bank 10 Index gaining 0.85% thanks to the likes of UBA (+2.83%) and Guaranty Trust Bank (+2.86%). Zenith ($7.87m), Nestle ($4.15m) and First Bank ($3.55m) drove activity with a number of large crosses taking place in the counters. Consumer stocks ended the day lower with the Consumer Goods Index falling 0.19% with Unilever falling 9.74% on thin volume while Nigerian Breweries fell 1.75%.

Please note that the index figure above is correct at the time of writing.

South Africa: Top 40 -2.67%, USD 1.71bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 2.67% to close at 36,312 while value traded amounted to USD 1.71bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 3.29% followed by Financials and Industrials which fell 2.23% and 2.21% respectively. The Rand was trading at 9.54 and 12.33 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +0.12%, USD 6.7k

Another absolutely dire day in Zambia with value traded amounting to USD 6.7k. The names that traded included CEC, LAFA, ZMBF and ZNCO. CEC was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 3.4k. ZNCO was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 1.9k.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.18%, Mining +0.83%, USD 1.2m

The ZSE maintained a steadily rising trajectory in the first trading session after the President signed the new charter into law yesterday. Mid cap gains across the market pushed the mainstream index 0.18% up to 211.38pts as the knock on effect takes its toll following gains in heavy cap stocks last week. Similarly the mining index gained 0.83% to 74.14pts buoyed by the rebound in Hwange which gained 3% to 15.5c. Total value traded was however subdued dropping 44% to $1.2m while volume traded eased 54% to 3.36m shares. Leading the gainers for the day was CFI which gained 33% to 8c. Delta’s associate Afdis firmed 19% to 25c after the former highlighted expected growth in return for Afdis in its presentation for annuals to march 2013, notwithstanding reports on the resignation of the group’s CE yesterday.

African Currencies