Movers & Shakers: September 02, 2013

Botswana: +0.25%, USD 1.35m

A chunky local cross in FNBB (370t) spiked volumes to a respectable $1.35m in Gaborone while the normally very illiquid FSG (178t) also witnessed decent trading. Outside of this the market was its usual quiet self.

Egypt: EGX 30 +0.53%, USD 59.6m

Another positive day for the Egyptian market leaving the EGX30 to end the day up 53bp. The market continues to display improved volumes relative to recent average volumes as the market recorded total turnover of EGP411m. With no major news to break the positive trend the market continued with its bullish sentiment albeit with less momentum, local retail investors continue to build positions in names such as ACGC, UEGC and OTMT leaving each to end the day up 1.28%, 2.63% and 1.67% respectively, also names such as ETEL, EKHO and COMI managed to gain interest from institutional investors leaving each to end the day up 1.64%, 2.56% and 1.08% respectively. It’s worth mentioning that minor profit booking was evident in the market, were names such as SVCE, SKPC and WATP witnessed selling pressure leaving each to end the day down 0.78%, 0.46% and 0.70% respectively.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.82%, USD 6.7m

The Nairobi bourse saw some mild profit taking after last weeks rally with the NSE 20 falling by 82bps. Foreign activity was notably higher on both sides of the coin although this was skewed after a large cross in EABL (both sides foreign). EABL accounted for 60% of the total turnover with the chunky cross taking place at KES 300 although the name eventually settled down at KES 298 (-30bps). Safcom continues its run thanks to strong foreign demand and closed up 1.3% at KES 8.10 with some crossing in the name taking place right at the close. The banks were incredibly quiet today with nothing of note taking place in Equity Bank or KCB.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.38%, USD 770k

Almost the entire days turnover took place in the 2 big banks with MCB (+13bps, Rs193.25) and SBM (unch, Rs1.00) accounting for the bulk of the days activity. The Sem-7 gained 51bps with the strength mostly witnessed on thin trading in NMH (+4.05%, Rs77), Bramer Banking (+95bps, Rs6.36) and Alteo Limited (+43bps, Rs34.75). OK Zimbabwe showed some resilience and closed up 3.64% at 24.1c on solid demand.

Nigeria: ASI -0.64%, USD 13m

It was a frustrating day all round in Lagos as the volumes continue to remain muted with the odd cross, but more frustratingly the feed from the NSE to Bloomberg was down for most of the session thus making life difficult for all participants. The crosses that spiked the volumes today took place in Dangote Cement (closed at N189.15) while Guinness also saw a chunky cross take place at N250. Guinness released their FY13 results after the session closed (Revenue +4%, PBT and PAT -17%, in line with expectations). Banks fell by 1.12% mostly due to profit taking in Guaranty (-3.57%, N58.11) while the consumers fell by 79bps with most of this softness attributed to Unilever (-3.15%, N58.11) and NB (-1.80%, N159.00).

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

South Africa: Top 40 -0.03%, USD 1.13bn

The JSE bucked the global strength by falling marginally by 3bps. The Rand reacted positively to the Fed/Summers news and closed higher at R9.80, R15.62 and R13.09 vs the USD, GBP and EUR respectively.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.30%, Mining -0.35%, USD 570k

A very dull session in Harare as it seems the sellers return on every bounce. The Industrials index lost 30bps mostly on the back of losses in Econet (-4.67%, 51c) and Dairibord (-5.26%, 18c). However, on thin volumes it is always difficult to gauge true conviction. In fact, most of today’s action took place in Innscor and Seedco, which is rather unusual. Also notable was that most of today’s trading on both the buy and sell side was by local firms.

African Currencies