Movers & Shakers: October 17, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.13%, USD 246k

A relatively quiet day in Gaborone with just some action in FNBB (375t) taking place. Outside of this nothing much happening.

Egypt: Closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.09%, USD 3.8m

Rather dull day in Nairobi today from both an activty and performance point of view as value traded amounted to $3.8m while the NSE 20 Index fell 0.09%. EABL accounted for the bulk of activity (42%) today with 444k shares traded thanks to a large cross with foreigners dominating both sides of the name. Activity in Safcom slowed down compared to what we have become accustomed to over the last few sessions with 4.01m shares traded. Britam retreated for the first time in a few sessions with the counter falling 1.5% to close at KES 9.95 thanks to a large local seller. Banking stocks are set to release their 3Q13 performance figures in coming weeks.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.08%, USD 987k

The Semdex and the Sem-7 (+6bps) both ticked up marginally. It was a rather dull day in Port Louis with the only real activity taking place in MCB (+13bps, Rs196). All other Sem-7 names closed unchanged except for Terra which closed up 25bps at Rs40.20.

Nigeria: ASI +0.56%, USD 24.31m

The buying continues to drive the Nigerian market with green scattered almost across the board as volumes improved. Banks were up a solid 78bps with Tier 1 names the drivers in both volumes as well as direction. The top names were UBA (+2%, N7.65), Access (+1.84%, N10.49) and Guaranty (+1.71%, N25.53) with Tier 1 names particularly active. Tier 2 names were much more muted. The consumers climbed by 42bps with strength in Cadbury (+2%, N55) and Guinness (+1.4%, N250) leading the charge. Flourmills (+1.22%, N83) also saw some nice crossing activity. Dangote Cement was particularly active and the name closed up 53bps at N190.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +0.28%, USD 1.39bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 index gaining 0.28% to close at 39,787 while value traded amounted to USD 1.39bn. Industrials were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 0.54% followed by Resources which gained 0.13% while Financials fell 0.23%. The Rand was trading at 9.82 and 13.41 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.32%, Mining +2.52%, USD 790k

The industrials index added 0.32% to 214.90 pts on mid-cap gains as most heavies seem fully priced. This has brought the index to 23 successive rising sessions in the money and is now 8% shy of its all time high of 232.87pts. The minings continued seesawing reversing yesterday’s losses by adding 2.52% to 50.10pts. Hwange provided the resources impetus firming 9% to 12c as the coal maker is reported to be in a bid to double its production levels. Other indicators headed southwards with turnover declining 71.4% to $0.790m while volume traded was 88% weaker at 2.9m shares. Delta contributed 65% to value while CBZ was the top volume contributor at 24%. Foreign buyers were 74% softer at $0.55m while sellers at $0.098m was 93% lower than yesterday.

African Currencies