Movers & Shakers: September 12, 2013

Botswana: DCI unch, USD 19k

Drastic slow down in Gaborone today as value traded amounted to a paltry USD 19k with hardly any names traded.

Egypt: EGX 30 +0.75%, USD 75m

The market managed to continue its bullish momentum on improved volumes, leaving the EGX30 to end the day up 0.75% to close at 5,488.01 points. Market volumes were significantly high relative to recent turnovers, the market traded a total turnover of USD 75m. With no bad news to buck the positive trend the market traded with a bullish momentum lead by notable buying from local and GCC retail investors targeting names such as SVCE, AMER and EKHO, leaving each to end the day up 3.84%, 1.96% and 1.33% respectively, yet international institutional investors continue to be net sellers along with GCC institutions in the market targeting names such as ACGC, JUFO and ORTE each ending the day down 1.45%, 0.10% and 0.45% respectively.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.11%, USD 4.8m

A slow down in foreign activity resulted in turnover decreasing to $4.8m in Nairobi. Safcom continued to drive the market from an activity point of view as foreigners continue to show strong demand in the telco. It is important to note that safcom will trade ex-div tomorrow (the dividend was KES 0.31). There was also solid foreign demand in Kenya Commercial Bank, but in saying that they also seemed patient as the name fell 0.60%. Despite announcing that it had completed it's acquisition of Sanlam Asset Managers Kenya, Pan Africa fell 1.6% to KES 60.50.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.25%, USD 1.88m

Activity remained robust in Port Louis with value traded amounting to USD 1.88m as MCB drove activity (54% of turnover) with a total of 164k shares changing hands. The major banks closed the day mixed with MCB gaining 0.13% while SBM fell 3.81% as it went ex-div today. Tourist arrivals increased 11.5% to 73,454 in August as visitors from China increased 133.5%.

Nigeria: NSE 20 -0.10%, USD 17.96m

It was another rather uneventful day in Lagos as value traded amounted to a cumbersome $17.96m as the majority of the global investment community seems content to sit on the sidelines for the time being. There was some solid two-way flow as well as a large cross in Guaranty Trust Bank ($2.88m) as the banking giant drove activity. There were a few large crosses in Access Bank ($2.33m) as the counter closed flat on the day. Nigerian Breweries was once again amongst the more active stocks as a total of 2.58m shares traded in the name, while Nestle($1.68m) was rather active over the session. Consumers were dull from a performance point of view with the index closing unchanged on the day. Banks (-0.98%) however came under pressure as First Bank (-3.80%) took a beating and drove the sector lower.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +0.70%, USD 1.55bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.70% to close at 39,207 while value traded amounted to USD 1.55bn. Financials were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 1.41% followed by Industrials which gained 0.93% while Resources fell 0.02%. The Rand was trading at 9.93 and 13.22 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.47%, Mining unch, USD 3.06m

The mainstream industrial index lost grip as activity increased in market heavyweights on remergent selling culminating in its -0.47% slump to close at 190.24pts. Enticing prices on the back of the recent market recovery saw high volumes coming out in market heavyweights Econet and Delta boosting the value of trades to $3.06m up 188% for the day. Telecoms giant Econet with an AGM pencilled for next week traded 1.35mn shares shedding -1.87% to close at 53.99c. Similarly 1.31mn shares changed hands in brewers Delta with the stock dropping -1.65% lower to close at 124.90c. Hortelier African Sun whose properties were part of those used in the recently ended UNWTO co-hosted by Zimbabwe and Zambia in Victoria Falls had the highest volume traded of 2.1mn shares and remained unchanged at 2c with firm bid remaining at that level.

African Currencies