Movers & Shakers: November 06, 2013

Botswana: DCI unch, USD 29k

A rather uneventful day in Gaborone to say the least. Some small activity in ABCH (505t) the only thing that happened.

Egypt: EGX +2.38%, USD 138m

The market managed to end the day higher leaving the EGX30 index to close at 6,370.63 up 2.38%. Decent volumes were witnessed on a total turnover of USD 138m. Institutional investors stepped in aggressively today picking up big names such as COMI(+4.09% and recorded a new 52 week high of 44.52), ESRS(+5.63% led in terms of value), JUFO(+6.37%), GTHE(+2.95%), PHDC(+2.81%) and HRHO(+2.84%). This buying momentum came after many investors were relieved following ousted president Morsi's trial got postponed and are now optimistic towards the Constitution. Moreover, no riots or demonstration by ousted Morsi supporters and both security forces seems pretty much in control of the situation. Local and Arab retail investors took advantage of the buying appetite and reverted to some profit booking to end the day as net sellers while foreign investors ended the day as net buyers by approx USD5mn on above average participation of 17.32%.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.72%, USD 10.4m

A very active day in Nairobi as value traded amounted to $10.4m. Safcom completely dominated activity after posting better than expected H1 2014 results after the session yesterday as a total of 42m shares changed hands. There was buying hysteria in the telco as local investors pushed the price through the roof, touching a high of Kes 10.20. Profit taking soon commenced with the counter closing the day at KES 9.70. Kenya Commercial Bank came under some pressure as the counter fell -1.0% to close at KES 48.25 on the back of foreign selling. EABL was fairly active thanks to a decent cross as a total of 112k shares traded in the brewer. The market was generally upbeat after the Central Bank's decision to retain its benchmark lending rate at 8.50%.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.03%, USD 830k

Another dull day in Mauritius. The Sem-7 fell by 2bps with the biggest fallers being NMH (-1.09%, Rs90.50) and Terra (-24bps, Rs40.90). The gainers were ENL Land (+1.01%, Rs50) and IBL (+51bps, Rs98.50).

Nigeria: ASI +0.19%, USD 30.79m

After a very quiet start the session got going and we saw a rather active session. The bulk of the action was in Zenith which saw a massive cross go through. The banks closed marginally up by 4bps with most names straddling their opening prices. There was also big crosses in ETI and Access. Consumers rose by a further 23bps today as foreign demand remains firm across the sector. Cadbury was the biggest reason for the outperformance as the name gained 4.46% to N58.50. Nestle (unch, N1210) and NB (unch N175) both saw some chunky crossing.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +1.07%, USD 1.51bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 1.07% to close at 41,367 while value traded amounted to USD 1.51bn. Resources were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 1.64% followed by Financials and Industrials which gained 0.84% and 0.71% respectively. The Rand was trading at 10.23 and 13.87 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.28%, Mining +2.01%, USD 1.02m

The Industrials index fell 0.28% to 209.69pts as heavy caps lost value on subdued demand. 6 counters traded softer while 7 were on the firm side. The losers, among them 3 heavy cap counters, namely Econet, OK and Natfoods, managed to outweigh the gainers thereby weighing on the bourse. Telecoms group Econet eased 1.59% to 62c on a relatively subdued volume of 0.1m shares. OK and Natfoods shed 3.85% and 0.41% to 25c and 240c respectively ahead of the later’s AGM where a proposed share buyback is due to be tabled for shareholders for consideration. The resources index gained 2.01% to close at 51.24pts on a improved bid of 6c in Falgold. However the segment recorded no trades. Meanwhile the Securities commission has changed its name to Securities and Exchange Commision in line with the new requirements of the Securities Ammendmend Bill. However the event failed to stimulate demand with turnover receding 70% to $1,02m.

African Currencies