Movers & Shakers: May 24, 2013

Botswana: DCI unch, USD 744k

Not a bad day to end the week from activity point of view (relatively speaking) with value traded amounting to USD 744k thanks to a cross of 2.5m Letshego. The other counters were rather quiet as market breadth was very thin.

Egypt: Closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.18%, USD 3.4m

Equity turnover fell 9.1% as institutions kept participation in the market low during the day. Whereas the market opened on a losing streak, buying interest started trickling in as the session wore on leading the market to post some gains. Diamond Trust Bank, Nation Media and Bamburi Cement were some of the counters heading higher on decent volumes. Foreign investors accounted for 47.1% of the day’s activity, up from 34% in the previous session. Co-op Bank was the leading mover, broadly unchanged on foreign investor buying which was 96.2% of trades. EABL continued reversing gains, today heading 4.9% lower. Oil marketers were on an upward momentum with KenolKobil rising 3% as Total Kenya added 2.7%. The two oil marketers hold their AGM’s next week.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.24%, USD 1.01m

Better day in Mauritius from an activity point of view with value traded amounting to USD 1.01m. NMH drove activity thanks to a cross of 175k shares at 71.00 with the buyer being foreign. The major banking stocks MCB and SBM were relatively quiet with 36k shares and 1.32m shares changing hands in the counters respectively.

Nigeria: ASI +2.41%, USD 24.31m

Banking stocks and Nestle once again dominated activity with value traded amounting to $24.31m. DangCem managed to bounce back after yesterday's beating and close the day 7.71% higher which helped the Index close firmly in positive terrritory. Banking stocks closed the day higher with the Bank10 Index gaining 1.24% thanks to Zenith (+2.94%) and UBA (+2.50%). Consumer stocks also ended the day higher with the Consumer Goods Index gaining 0.41% as Cadbury's recent run continues with the name closing 9.97% higher on the day while DanSuga gained 8.20%.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +0.36%, USD 1.25bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.36% to close at 36,444 while value traded amounted to USD 1.25bn. Industrials were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 0.59% followed by Financials and Resources which gained 0.21% and 0.02% respectively. The Rand was trading at 9.55 and 12.36 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +1.26%, USD 26k

Another quiet day to end the week in Lusaka with value traded amounting to USD 26k. The names that traded included BATA, BATZ, CEC, FQMZ, LAFA and ZNCO. BATZ was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 12k. LAFA was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 6.3k.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.16%, Mining unch, USD 1.36m

Tight liquidity conditions coupled with subdued economic activity are among a plethora of exogenous issues pointed at as causes for weaker Q1 performances in trading updates being given in the ongoing season of AGM’s. Lafarge reported a relatively flat top line of $21.7m and has since revised their annual overturn forecasts downwards to a range of 6%-9% from 10%-11% previously, in today’s trades the counter was bid only at 86c. Turnall, on the other hand reported declining numbers with total sales down 10% in the 4 months to April at $11.3m over the comparable period with volumes taking a 16% dip. Today Turnall was bid and offers only at 4.5c and 5c respectively. In similar fashion Seed-Co’s financials nose dived on reduced business with turnover softening 6% to $110m on last year on the back of a shrunk in aggregate seed uptake by about 45%. Seed co was bid only at 69c. The market sustained its rally albeit at a slower pace with the mainstream industrial index putting on 0.16% to 212.08pts buoyed by gains in mid tier stocks, while the mining index was unchanged at 74.14pts. Value traded was up 13% at $1.36m while volume traded increased 3% to $3.4m. Foreign inflows were 2% ahead of yesterday at $0.5m while foreign outflows were 2% up at $0.4m. Leading today’s bulls were TSL and Afrisun which have managed to restructure and streamline operations in the previous financial year and have since returned to profitability closing at 20c and 1.82c indicating an 8% and 4% gain respectively.

African Currencies