Movers & Shakers: May 30, 2013

Botswana: DCI -0.02%, USD 3.89m

Big action in FNBB accounting for 94% of todays turnover. The name closed at 365t. The normally very illiquid NAP also saw some decent activity (220t) while virtually nothing else traded in the market.

Egypt: EGX30 +1.89%, USD 104m

The market witnessed a notable rally today lead by strong buying from International institutions along with GCC Individual investors, leaving the EGX30 to end the day up 1.89% to close at 5,438.77 points, it’s worth mentioning that institutional investors accounted for more than 60% of the total turnover mostly international investors(36.62% of the whole market). Market volumes significantly improved to trade the highest volumes YTD, the market traded a total turnover of USD 104m, yet it’s worth mentioning that more than 17% was attributed to crosses. The market rally today was mainly attributed to funds re-balancing against the MSCI index as today was last in the month since the re-balancing was announced, names such as TMGH, COMI and OCIC benefited from the surge each ending the day up 3.63%, 2.34% and 1.44% respectively on very strong volumes, yet names such as HRHO did not benefit from the rally after the stock has been removed from the MSCI index, the former ended the day down 1.35% on extraordinary volumes of 31.27mil shares to end the day at EGP8.75. ORTE managed to witnessed aggressive buying to end day at EGP5.00 up 4.4% to set the highest close since September 2008, this comes after buyout bid(EGP4.90) from Altimo has failed.

Investor mix:
•  Foreigners were net Buyers by 30.12 mn EGP and were 36.62% of the market.
•  Egyptians were net Sellers by 54.72 mn EGP and were 40.55% of the market.
•  Arabs were net Buyers by 24.60 mn EGP and were 22.83% of the market.
•  Institutions were net Sellers by 31.15 mn EGP and were 60.37% of the market.
•  Retail were net Buyers by 31.15 mn EGP and were 39.62% of the market.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.18%, USD 5.5m

Equity turnover declined 13.8% as block trading reduced during the day. Foreign investors accounted for 50.4% of the day’s activity, up from 44.8% in the previous session. KenolKobil notched 1.9% higher to KES 10.50, with the company saying, during its AGM, that its planned asset disposal of noncore assets which could raise USD 60m to reduce debt levels. Whereas the company is now EBITDA positive, we think finance costs will continue to weigh down the company until it can reduce its debt position. Total Kenya lost 4.5% on thin volumes ahead of its AGM on 12 June 2013. TranCentury declined 5.7%, also on thin volumes. Safaricom climbed 1.4% to KES 7.25 on foreign investor trading. Centum climbed 3.3% to KES 23.50 as investors continued to position themselves ahead of FY13 results. Whereas the company will probably not declare a dividend, the market expects a bonus issue after it skipped last year.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.19%, USD 1.2m

A soft day in Port Louis as the only Sem-7 stocks to change price all lost ground. The Sem-7 closed down 30bps with ENL Land (-2.08%, Rs47) the biggest faller. Other names that also fell included MCB (-13bps, Rs194.75), NMH (-35bps, Rs70.75), Alteo (-28bps, Rs35.50) and Terra (-24bps, Rs41.75).

Nigeria: ASI +1.79%, USD 20.28m

A quiet day in Lagos yet some strong aggressive buying pushed prices higher shortly before the close. The banks closed up 1.86% with strength witnessed across the board. The best performers were GTB (+3.77%, N29.99) and Stanbic (+1.97%, N16.01) while Skye Bank (-2%, N4.90) fell. Consumers were on fire yet again and closed up 3.06% for the day. Strong buying on Nestle just before the close pushed the stock up 9.9% to N1088 while Cadbury reversed its recent weakness to close up 4.36% at N54.56. NB gained 2.25% to N178 on good volume while Guinness fell 1.22% to N275.61 on thin volume. The Cement sector also had a good day with Ashaka Cement, Dangote Cement and Wapco all positive.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +2.07%, USD 1.73bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 2.07% to close at 37,500 while value traded amounted to USD 1.73bn. Resources were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 4.00% followed by Industrials and Financials which gained 1.29% and 0.11% respectively. The Rand was trading at 10.00 and 13.07 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zambia: LuSE +0.22%, USD 14k

Dead day in Lusaka with value traded amounting to a paltry USD 14k. The names that traded included BATZ, CEC, FQMZ and ZNCO. CEC was the biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 5.3k. ZNCO was the second biggest contributor towards turnover with value traded in the name amounting to USD 5.2k.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.39%, Mining unch, USD 900k

Block trades in banking group FBCH and crocodile skin producers Padenga highlighted the market in a thinly traded session where the value of trades fell 39% to close below the $1m mark at $0.9m. Padenga holdings top traded after 11,185,276 shares exchanged hands in trades worth $548,079 being 61% of the day’s total value. FBCH accounted for 24% of the value after 2,649,582 shares exchanged hands at a stable price of 8c in today’s trades. Locals dominated the traded session as foreign demand was heavily subdued today with inflows crushing 96% to lowly $41k while outflows were similarly down at $12k after shedding 71% on previous levels. It was a risers market today with six stocks registering gains and no fallers for the day helping the Industrial index to a +0.39% gain to close at 212.77pts. Anchoring the gains was telecoms giant Econet that added +3.71% to 72.6c on active bidding ahead of the release of its full year results to Feb 2013 later this afternoon.

African Currencies