Movers & Shakers: November 15, 2013

Botswana: DCI -0.06%, USD 706k

Activity in Letshego (231t) and the normally very illiquid Turnstar (170t) the bulk of today’s activity in Gaborone.

Egypt: Closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.25%, USD 6.3m

Buoyed by some of the smaller stocks in the benchmark index, the market touched its highest level in almost two years. Equity turnover climbed 30.3% with foreign investors being net sellers for 21.7% of the market. Foreign investor participation was at 51.1% compared to 41.8% in the previous session. Kenya Airways retreated 2.6% as supply outweighed demand and investors took profit on the airline after a good run ahead of the positive 1H14 numbers. Britam added just 1.38% as buyers came in at lower prices after a strong rally earlier in the day. The insurer purchased a 25% stake in Acorn, property manager, and announced plans to launch real estate products for the institutional market. KenGen notched 1.9% higher while Kenya Power added 1% after speculation in the market suggested the potential of an upward tariff adjustment next week.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.76%, USD 1.44m

Mauritius was on fire today as the main index gained 76bps while the Sem-7 rose an impressive 1.31%. After releasing results yesterday the banks were on fire with MCB up 1.11% and SBM up 3.96% at Rs205 and Rs1.05 respectively. The rest of the Sem-7 was unchanged.

Nigeria: ASI +0.29%, USD 17.13m

Another extremely dull day as foreign investors remain on the sidelines. The index just inched along at a very slow rate all day. Banks fell by 45bps with weakness in the Tier 2 names the most noticeable although on almost nothing volumes. Consumers also slipped by more than 40bps with softness in NB (-82bps, N168.60), Guinness (-1.29%, N230) and Dangote Sugar (-1.29%, N10.70) the bulk of the weakness. The most active stock on the day was Oando which gained 3% to N12 on the same day as it released results. Wapco rose by 5% to N111.30 on decent volumes.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +0.57%, USD 1.57bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.57% to close at 40,394 while value traded amounted to USD 1.57bn. Resources were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 0.82% followed by Industrials and Financials which gained 0.54% and 0.33% respectively. The Rand was trading at 10.16 and 13.69 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.53%, Mining -0.13%, USD 1.61m

Industrials rebounded from yesterday’s losses as heavy caps Delta and BAT gave the much needed weight to inspire industrials to a 0.53% gain to 216.23pts. Delta which reported a 12% improvement in profitability for the 6 months to September 2013 that has seen an upsurge in demand post results presentation. In today’s session Delta added 1.72% to yesterday’s gain bringing up an impressive 48% year to date return having started the year at 100c. The cigarrete manufacturer, BAT, on the other hand added 4.17% to 1,250c despite press allegations of downsizing Zimbabwe operations opting for outsourcing of production of some Brands to its sister SA unit though BAT vehemently denies the production outsourcing accusations. The mining indexe closed -0.13% softer at 46.03pts as Bindura lost 2.7% to 1.8c amid management changes at the nickel miner. However a market report for its parent company Mwana Africa shows that the group expects to earn improved profitability of $3.5m in the 2014 financial year due to a new revised mining plan for BNC.

African Currencies