Movers & Shakers: October 31, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.10%, USD 4.16m

A very active day in Botswana to end the month. The most active names were BIHL (1055t), Choppies (307t) and Letshego (220t) while Sefalana (640t) also saw some active trading.

Egypt: EGX 30 +0.31%, USD 68m

The market traded the day with a mixed sentiment to end the day in the greens, leaving EGX30 up 0.13% to close at 6,181.86 points. Volumes continue to be slightly weaker relative to recent turnovers, the market traded a total turnover of USD 68m. the market started the day with a negative sentiment with local retail investors pressuring the market to reach a low of 6,160.49 points were names such as ACGC(-2.40%), WATP(-2.23%) and APSW(-1.73%) witnessed selling pressure, yet after an hour of trading international and local institutions managed to lift the market as net-buyers, targeting names such as SWDY, COMO and SKPC leaving each to end the day up 3.04%, 1.45% and 0.98% respectively.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.44%, USD 9.7m

The NSE 20 Index edged closer to the 5,000 point mark, managing to stage a gain of 0.44% while activity tapered off slighty but still came in at a respectable $9.7m. The two major bank drove acivity once again as 5.17m shares traded in Equity Bank while 3.71m shares changed hands in Kenya Commercial Bank. Kenya Commercial Bank announced Q3 2013 performance figures today, posting a 15%y/y rise in PAT. Safaricom witnessed strong foreign investor demand ahead of H1 2013 earnings, touching a new 12 month high of KES 9.70 during trading, though closing at KES 9.45, 2.2% higher than the previous session. Foreign particiaption dropped to 48.4% of toal activity.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.39%, USD 1.13m

The Semdex rose while the Sem-7 was marginally soft today (-6bps). MCB finally retreated and lost 1.33% to Rs203.25 while SBM closed up 99bps at Rs1.02. The rest of the Sem-7 was also strong with NMH (+1.11%, Rs91), Terra (+97bps, Rs41.50) and ENL Land (+41bps, Rs49.50) all outperforming. The market will be closed tomorrow for a holiday.

Nigeria: ASI +0.39%, USD 25.1m

After a slow start to the session the crossing activity picked up and the total turnover was a respectable $25.1m. The banking sector in particular was on fire as aggressive buying returned to the sector (+1.13%) with some good volumes trading. The best performers in the sector were UBA (+4.3%, N7.82), Zenith (+2.5%, N21.54), Access (+3.6%, N9.69) and Fidelity (+4.3%, N2.65). Consumers were also aggressively pushed up by 1.84% and the leading lights in the sector were Guinness (+5%, N252), Unilever (+3.3%, N61) and Nestle (+4.66%, N1100). Dangote Cement also saw some chunky crossing at the unchanged level of N190.

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

South Africa: Top 40 -0.20%, USD 1.29bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.20% to close at 40,658 while value traded amounted to USD 1.29bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 0.90% followed by Industrials which fell 0.03% while Financials gained 0.33%. The Rand was trading at 10.00 and 13.60 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.09%, Mining +9.09%, USD 1.47m

The ZSE eased in Thursday trades, falling 0.09% to 209.74pts, despite recovery in most heavy cap stocks in a typical month end fashion. Natfoods among othe mid-tier stocks dragged the industrials lower after dropping 3.6% to 241c ahead of the AGM on the 12th of November where shareholders will vote on a buyback resolution. Barclays also dropped 4.8% to 4c after posting solid share gains post elections where the new government pledged not to takeover foreign banks. Meanwhile the minings continued its rollercoaster rebound soaring 9.09% to 52.68pts on improved bid in Hwange of 14c from 12c albeit with no sellers in sight. The coal miner management is reportedly still looking into the proposal by a major shareholder which will ensure a $50m injection into the struggling company. However, the minings have been fluctuating and in some instances stagnating and has cumultatively shed -19.1% year to date. Other market indicators were equally mixed on a comparative basis with turnover amounting to $1.47m on a volume of 5.4m shares.

African Currencies