Movers & Shakers: September 20, 2013

Botswana: DCI -0.01%, USD 22k

After yesterday’s fireworks the Botswana bourse disappointingly reverted back to mean as nothing much took place. A couple of scraps went through but nothing notable.

Egypt: Market closed for the day

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.13%, USD 6.1m

The Kenya bourse remains a popular destination for investors as the index continues to climb. Safcom was on steroids yet again and did in fact touch a high of KES 8.70 during the day before eventually closing at KES 8.50 (+1.8%). Foreign participation declined yet remains heavily skewed towards the buy side. EABL remains popular with foreign investors on both the buy and sell side. The name continues to tick along and closed up 30bps at KES 303. Equity Bank was also strong as it closed at KES 33.75 (+75bps) while KNCB closed the day unchanged at KES 45.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.14%, USD 750k

Nothing much happened in Port Louis with MCB not even trading a single share. The biggest mover in the Sem-7 was NMH which gained 1.59% to Rs80.00 while the only other stock to move was ENL Land which lost 10bps to Rs48.95 in a session in which there was clearly a lack of interest.

Nigeria: ASI +0.83%, USD 12.26m

A flurry of activity late in the session increased overall volumes to a still disappointing $12.26m. it was a very very quiet session but the buying did continue, although today it was the consumers that joined the banks in the outperformers column. Banks were up 72bps with Tier 1 names again very much in demand, albeit on light volumes. UBA (+5.48%, N7.70) and FBNH (+2.58%, N15.90) were the leading lights in the sector. Consumers were extremely quiet but some crossing in UACN and NB just before the close pushed the sector. UACN was also the primary reason for the sector doing well as it closed up 8.38% at N60.80 with PZ (+5.71%, N37) also strong. NB closed the day up 1.86% at N165.

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

South Africa: Top 40 -0.40%, USD 2.2bn

The JSE fell slightly today amidst mixed global markets. The Rand also pared back some of it gains and was trading at R9.87, R15.80 and R13.33 vs the USD, GBP and EUR respectively at the time of writing.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +1.56%, Mining -0.45%, USD 1.1m

The buying continued in the large caps today with Delta joining in the party as the brewer rose by 84bps to 120c, and it was also almost the entire turnover in the market today. The other heavyweights showed solid gains albeit on thin volumes: Econet gained 5.8% to 55.01c, Innscor inched up by 12bps to 81c, National Foods rose by 4.5% to 230c and OK Zim ramped up by another 3.5% to 26c. It was distinctly noticeable how scarce the sellers were today hence the light volumes.

African Currencies