Movers & Shakers: September 06, 2013

Botswana: DCI +0.01%, USD 1.77m

Activity dropped off slightly in Gaborone but still continued to surprise as value traded amounted to USD 1.77m. This should however be taken with a pinch of salt as a cross in Letshego (7.2m shares) accounted for 99% of today's turnover.

Egypt: Market closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.67%, USD 9.7m

It was a very pleasing end to the week in Nairobi from an activity point of view as value traded increased to $9.7m thanks to some serious foreign participation (both sides) in Safcom as a total of 33m shares changed hands in the telco. In total, foreign participation accounted for 77% of today's activity. There was a large cross of 300k EABL at KES 296 (both sides foreign) as a total of 412k shares traded over the day. ScanGroup notched 2.4% higher on foreign investor trading. The marketing services firm gaining on a day when the Nigerian president visited Kenya to sign several bilateral agreements.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.10%, USD 3.47m

Very active day in Port Louis to end the week as value traded amounted to USD 3.47m. Turnover got a boost thanks to a large cross of about 70m shares in SBM as the name accounted for 75% of today's turnover. Both banking giants closed the day lower with MCB falling 0.52% while SBM fell 0.95%. The rest of the market was fairly quiet with some muted activity in NMH.

Nigeria: NSE 20 -0.20%, USD 17.67m

Actvity dropped off on the last trading day of the week with value traded amounting to $17.67m. WAPCO and Nigerian Breweries were once again amongst the most active as there was a nother large cross in the former relatively early on. Consumers (-0.16%) dragged the market lower with Glaxo Smith Kline (-1.99%) seeing some profit taking and Unilever (-1.67%) also being a drag on the sector. Tier-two banking stocks weighed on the banking sector as Fidelity (-1.82%) and Stanbic (-1.77%) being amongst the worst performers with the Bank 10 Index falling (-0.49%). It was relatively slow going in the tier-one banks with First Bank ($1.86m) and Guranty ($1.72m) adding the most in terms of turnover.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +0.06%, USD 1.11bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.06% to close at 38,422 while value traded amounted to USD 1.11bn. Financials were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 0.49% followed Industrials which gained 0.26% while Resources fell 0.35%. The Rand was trading at 10.01 and 13.18 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +2.70%, Mining unch, USD 960k

Value of trades declined by 69.25% to $0.96m as the sell-off moderated on the last trading day of the week which may imply a possible bottoming as sellers diminish. A total of 70 trades were spread across the bourse with major ones being in Old Mutual which contributed 53% to turnover on a block trade at 230c. Retailers OK put up a fair share of 18.6% value to the total to earn a 2nd spot. Volumes likewise were depressed at 3.35m a downfall of 49% from yesterday, OK’s contribution at 25% was the highest followed by Barclays at 15%. Subdued selling at current levels necessitated a industrials comeback putting up a respectable 2.7% to 181.76 wiping out the previous 4 days losses. Delta was strongly bid higher at 113.05c and traded at 113.1c which is 8% up on previous close thus providing a stimuli to the industrials. Other heavy cap gains were recorded in Innscor and Econet which closed higher at 80.03c and 49.5c with gains of 0.04% and 3% respectively.

African Currencies