Movers & Shakers: May 29, 2012

Botswana: DCI +0.10%, Vols USD 189k

Turnover increased to USD 189k today compared to USD 11k yesterday. Engen saw 118,357 shares trade in the name at 548t, contributing to 47% of the day's turnover. Sefalana accounted for 44% of the turnover with 220,000 shares trading at 275t. Chobe and Choppies picked up 1t each to end the day at 236t and 166t respectively.

Egypt: EGX30 -1.14%, Vols USD 49m

The EGX30 ended the day 1.14% lower at 4,683.87 points on weak volume of EGP254mn. Anxiety and panic was quite evident amongst investors(Internationals and retail) following yesterday's protests against the first-round presidential elections results, which escalated into the torching of presidential candidate Shafiq's HQ. Surprisingly, into the second half of the session Gulf investors stepped in to pick-up heavily beaten blue chips triggered by the positive news out on OCIC that Marubeni agreed to buy 100% of Gavilon for USD3.6bn (better than expected deal) and that OCIC would sell it's 16.8% stake in the company at USD605mn versus USD340mn paid in 2008. The stock managed to lead the market in terms of volume, recorded a day high of EGP267.40 and closed at 264.65 down 0.49%. HRHO managed to buck the general trend and ended the day up 1.15%.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Sellers by 65.97 mn EGP and were 29.19% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Buyers by 2.07 mn EGP and were 47.30% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Buyers by 63.90 mn EGP and were 23.51% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by 5.25 mn EGP and were 53.80% of the market.
•  Retail were net Buyers by 5.25 mn EGP and were 46.19% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.25%, Vols USD 1.94m

Today was incredibly slow in Kenya with many reasons combining to cause this, all the holidays this week (NIgeria today, US yest, Kenya later this week), the global issues specifically Europe which Kenya has large exposure to, not catalysts in the market at the moment and local pm's seemingly more interested in their upcoming CFA exam than being active in the market. The reduced foreign participation was particularly noticeable. Equity was one of the more active names accounting for 22% of the total market activity, -1.2% lower. KNCB was one of the few names that attracted foreign buying interest, supply coming from locals. Uchumi managed to reverse most of yesterday's -10% loss, reclaiming +7.7%. It would appear that yesterday's attach was actually terrorist related as opposed to the initial reports which suggested an electric fault.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.01%, Vols USD 1.1m

The Semdex inched down 0.01% while the Sem 7 ended the day 0.09% higher. Turnover stood at USD 1.1m geared towards MCB and SBM. 96k shares traded in MCB out of which 85.8k shares was crossed. SBM saw crosses resulting to a total of 91.7k shares. Both banking stocks ended the day flat with MCB at Rs168 and SBM at Rs83. ENL Land traded 0.26% higher at Rs39 while NMH gained 0.70% at Rs72. On the DEM, the index lost 0.5% to 148.14pts.

Nigeria: Closed Today

South Africa: ALSI +1.02%, Vols USD 1.1bn

All the main indices were stronger at the close of the session with the JSE taking its lead from world markets after Asia was stronger at the open and Europe followed suit. The activity levels improved from yesterday's really slow day but they are still far from convincing, the lack of conviction most likely stemming from the global issues and all the uncertainties. The banks were the days top performers +1.97% rebounding after being the worst performers yest. The resources sector also had another strong day with a +1.55% leap. The worst performing sector was the Golds who didn't quite manage to reach the +1% mark.

Zambia: LuSE +1.83%, Vols USD 36k

The LuSE ended the day 1.83% higher at 3,868.43pts. Vols remained on the thin side with only USD36k crossing the floor. AELZ traded 2.86% higher at ZMK3,500. CECZ lost 0.15% at ZMK647. INVE was down 5.03% at ZMK 17.9 on thin vols. ZSUG lost 0.4% to end the day at ZMK251.

Zimbabwe: Industrial Index -0.45%, Mining's +1.1%, Vols USD 2.1m

Yet another busy session on the ZSE today as crosses dominated trading in most stocks. Highlighting the market were crosses in Barclays, Econet, Fidelity, Innscor, Pearl and SeedCo. Econet saw 181,431 shares trade, yielding $751k while other notable trades were seen in Barclays ($301k), SeedCo ($254k), Pearl ($196k) and Innscor ($172k). Cafca lost 11.29% to 55c while Fidelity succumbed to selling pressure and traded 4% softer at 14.4c. Econet dropped -1.43% to 414c as banking group CBZ came off -1.25% to 7.9c with Delta faltering -0.69% to 69cas selling pressure persisted. Countering the losses were gains led by Afdis that put on +4.76% to 11c with ABCH following after gaining +1.85% to 55c and Ariston up +1.43% to 1.42c. Gains in Bindura saw the mining index close +1.1% firmer at 84.87pts while the rest of the mining stocks saw no trades.