Movers & Shakers: October 25, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.13%, USD 2.94m

A large cross in BIHL (2.13m shares) accounted for 90% of today's turnover as value traded amounted to USD 2.94m. There was a small bit of activity in FNBB as 600k shares traded.

Egypt: Closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.28%, USD 8.6m

Activity slowed down today but was still rather robust (especially for a Friday) as value traded amounted to $8.6m. Bamburi Cement dominated activity thanks to a large cross where the seller was foreign while the buyer was local as a total of 777k shares traded in the name. This came ahead of EA Portland Cement FY13 results which were released at the close of the session reporting a return to profitability. Bamburi holds 12.5% of EA Portland, while Lafarge holding 29.2%. The company has been subject of privatization talk for years and has a free float of just 6% at the bourse. There was some mild profit taking in Safcom as the telco fell 0.60% to close at KES 9.00 on 10.87m shares. There was some decent activity in Equity Bank as 2.78m shares traded with the counter closing flat at KES 35.00.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.18%, USD 1.15m

It was a decent day to end the week in Port Louis as value traded amounted to USD 1.15m thanks to some action in MCB ($461k) and SBM ($384k) with MCB gaining 0.50% to close at another record high of Rs203 while SBM closed flat at Rs1.01. Apart from the banking sector there was some activity in Terra as 17.8k shares changed hands.

Nigeria: ASI -0.40%, USD 17.21m

Another rather slow day in Lagos as value traded amounted to $17.21m. Guaranty Trust Bank released Q3 2013 results after the session yesterday evening which saw PAT increase +9%. The results seemed pretty much in-line with expectations as the name closed today's session unchanged at N25.25. Zenith Bank released Q3 2013 results towards the end of the session which saw PAT increase by 9%, with the counter closing the day marginally higher at N21.85. Banks ended the day softer with the Bank10 Index falling -0.54% thanks to some profit taking in UBA as the counter fell -4.89%. Consumers also ended the session in the red with the Consumer Goods Index falling -0.78% as UACN (-1.53%) and Guinness (-1.24%) were a drag on the sector. UACN released Q3 2013 results which saw PAT increase +49.4%.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +0.03%, USD 1.28bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.18% to close at 40,314 while value traded amounted to USD 1.16bn. Resources were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 0.31% followed by Financials and Industrials which gained 0.10% and 0.07% respectively. The Rand was trading at 9.80 and 13.54 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.06%, Mining -1.02%, USD 1.18m

The industrial index managed to pose a miraculous recovery in week ending trades where 6 counters lost ground compared to only 1 riser. The industrials gained 0.06% to 209.71pts after 5 succesive losing sessions. It took gains in Star Africa of 0.1% to 1.51c and firmer bids in TSL at 35c to reverse the demise. The surge in sugar manufacturer comes after the group has said it intends to invests between $4m and $7m in completing its plant upgrade and installation of the new plant. The plant is expected to produce 600t a day from the current 300t after the upgrade is completed.Turnover decreased to $1.18m.

African Currencies