Movers & Shakers: October 22, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.06%, USD 59k

Activity dropped off a cliff in Gaborone today as value traded amounted to a dire USD 59k with not much going on in any of the big names unfortunately.

Egypt: EGX 30 +1.84%, USD 114m

Against all odds the market traded the day with a notable positive sentiment lead by notable buying from local investors (institutional), leaving the EGX30 to end the day up 1.84% to close at 6,201.23 points. Market volumes continue to improve compared to recent average turnovers, the market traded a total turnover if USD 114m. The market traded the day with a notable bullish appetite mainly lead by local and GCC institutions after being net sellers over the last couple of sessions, names such as PHDC, TMGH and AMER witnessed above average volumes leaving each to end the day up 4.42%, 3.13% and 3.51% respectively, it’s worth mentioning that ETEL witnessed very strong volumes today, this comes after an official from Vodafone Group has expressed the company's interest in acquiring the remaining 45% stake currently owned by Telecom Egypt in Vodafone Egypt, the former ended the day up 3.88% to close at EGP14.44.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.10%, USD 3.9m

Activity decreased in Nairobi today after the long weekend with value traded amounting to $3.9m on the back of a reduction in foreign particpation. EABL was on top of the pile in terms of value traded as 248k shares traded in the counter with foreigners dominating both sides of the name. Aggressive foreign buying lifted activity in Kenya Commercial Bank with 1.14m shares traded, the counter gained 1.5%. Not much on the go in Safcom today as a total of 3.7m shares traded.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.11%, USD 1.02m

Activity picked up in Port Louis today as value traded amounted to USD 1.02m thanks to MCB which accounted for 50% of activity with 79k shares traded in the counter after a few large crosses. Both major banking stocks closed the day unchanged with MCB at 196.50 while SBM closed at 1.01. There was a bit of action in NMH as a total of 74k shares traded with the name closing higher at 87.50.

Nigeria: ASI +0.28%, USD 26.62m

Another fairly solid day in Lagos from an activity point of view as value traded amouted to $26.62m as trade was completely and utterly dominated by Guaranty Trust Bank ($12.32m) thanks to a few chunky crosses and some very good two-way flow. Other key drivers behind activity today came in the for of Nigerian Breweries ($1.78m) as the brewer rallied to as high as N178.50 then later closed the day at N176.00. Access ($1.60m) and First Bank ($1.58m) were also substantial contributors towards value traded. Banking stocks ended the day lower with the Bank 10 Index falling -0.40% as Zenith Bank (-1.46%) and ETI (-1.00%) were a drag on the sector. Consumers ended the day higher with the Consumer Goods Index gaining +0.73% as Guinness (+2.53%) and Nigerian Breweries (+2.33%) boosted the sector.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +1.12%, USD 1.57bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 1.12% to close at 40,544 while value traded amounted to USD 1.57bn. Resources were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 2.16% followed by Industrials and Financials which gained 0.87% and 0.01% respectively. The Rand was trading at 9.73 and 13.42 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.94%, Mining unch, USD 2.08m

Industrials suffered a further dent succumbing to a 0.94% loss mainly on heavy cap stock losses to settle at 210.36pts. Econet suffered the worst bruise shedding 4.76% to close at 60c though the volumes exchanged were unimpressive. Among the shakers were Delta, BAT, OK and Innscor. Delta eased 0.01% to 135c while BAT softened 3.8% to 1250c with the duo of OK and Innscor tumbling 3.7% and 1.1% to 26c and 88c respectively. The minings however remained unchanged from a previous close of 67.53pts with the only trades in the cluster being in Bindura at 2c. Activity on the ZSE however kept a positive trajectory following on yesterday’s surge adding 24% to $2.08m. Trades in Delta accounting for 69% of turnover and worth $1.4m highlighted the session.

African Currencies