Movers & Shakers: September 02, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.23%, USD 235k

Not much on the go in Gaborone today as value traded amounted to USD 235k with a cross of 500k FBN accounting for 88% of today's turnover.

Egypt: EGX 30 -1.07%, USD 31m

The market witnessed some profit booking today lead by notable selling from institutional investors (Local) leaving the EGX30 to end the day down -1.07% to close at 5,224.51 points. The market traded significantly low volumes, to end the with a total turnover of USD 31m. The market picked up its profit booking sentiment as fear continue to rise regarding the geopolitical risk adding to this the lack of catalyst to drive the market higher. The real-estates sector witnessed notable selling pressure today, were names such as OCDI, PHDC and TMGH witnessed heavy selling to end the day down 3.47%, 3.06% and 1.62% respectively. It’s worth mentioning that local retail investors ended the day as net buyers, targeting names such as ACGC and APSW leaving each to end the day up 6.85% and 3.32% respectively on above average volumes.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.59%, USD 2.8m

It was a very sluggish start to the week in Nairobi with value traded amounting to $2.8m. East African Breweries ($1.33m) was the only counter worth writing about as there were a few large crosses in the name as foreigners were net buyers in the brewer. There was also a bit of activity in Kenya Commercial Bank ($379k) with foreigners also net buyers in the bank. There was a cross of 2.3m shares in the usually very quiet Home Afrika with foreigners being the buyers while the seller was local. SCAN Group (-7%) continued to slide after releasing dissapointing H1 2013 results last week.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.04%, USD 1.49m

It was a vibrant start to the week in Port Louis with value traded amounting to USD 1.49m. A cross of 15k MCB floating-rate notes at Rs1,050.27 accounted for 34% of turnover. There was a fair amount of activity in the banking heavyweights as 39k MCB traded while 5.48m SBM changed hands.

Nigeria: NSE 20 +0.26%, USD 14.96m

Another slow start to the week in Lagos thanks to the U.S public holiday as value traded amounted to $14.96m. There was a cross of 105m shares at 5.05 in the usually very illiquid construction company ARBICO that helped boost activity. Banks apart from Guaranty Trust Bank (7.46m shares) and Zenith Bank (15.92m shares) were very quiet as the sector closed the day +0.98% higher. Consumers (+0.40%) also closed in positive territory as Nigerian Breweries ($1.11m) and Nestle ($1.39m) lead turnover in the sector.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +1.27%, USD 1.11bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 1.27% to close at 38,346 while value traded amounted to USD 1.11bn. Resources were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 1.57% followed by Financials and Industrials which gained 1.55% and 0.96% respectively. The Rand was trading at 10.24 and 13.51 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.75%, Mining unch, USD 930k

It was a remarkably quiet session in which only 9 trades were recorded with no risers while 4 lost and 5 were unchanged. Turnover fell -48.6% to $0.93m while volumes were a mere 2.8m shares. The market continued to falter losing -0.75% to end at 180.31pts. Weighing in was Delta which fell -1.8% to 108c despite its leading turnover contribution of $0.54m. Similarly a CBZ 2m block trade valued at $0.26m changed hands at a price -3.7% lower at 13c. Holding company AICO dropped -0.11% down to 4c after releasing two cautionary statements with one being a profit warning advising of higher losses for the year to March 2014 on the back of poor performance in the cotton business while the other renewed its ongoing cautionary on recapitalization transaction. At its recent AGM last Friday the group highlighted the need for adequate capitalization of all its subsidiaries to be competitive. Minings were unchanged at 48.73pts and registering no trades. Worthy noting was the revision of Rio’s ask price to 35c.

African Currencies