Movers & Shakers: September 23, 2013

Botswana: DCI -0.02%, USD 441k

Not much on the go in Gaborone today as value traded amounted to USD 441k with crosses in Stanchart (207k shares) and Engen (133k shares) drove activity.

Egypt: EGX 30 +1.09%, USD 92m

The Egyptian market managed to continue to trade with its positive sentiment leaving the EGX30 to end the day up 1.09% to close at 5647.60 points. The market continue to trade improved volumes, the market traded a total turnover of USD 92m its worth mentioning almost 10% of the total turnover was attributed to ESRS alone were the name witnessed several crosses to end the day at up 1.23%. With the economical and political situation fairly stable the EGX30 continues to gain a notable positive appetite lead mainly form local retail investors targeting names such as EIUD, ACGC, WATP, and leaving each to end the day up 5.00%,4.10% and 2.74% respectively, it’s worth mentioning that local institutions were net-sellers over the last couple sessions, yet today they managed to jump back to being net buyer targeting names such as EFIC, ETEL and GTHE(Formerly known as ORTE) leaving each to end the day up 1.80%, 1.43% and 2.28% respectively.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.26%, USD 3.2m

After the horrific terrorist attacks in Kenya over the weekend volumes were expectedly low as value traded amounted to $3.2m with foreigners (surprisingly) dominating activity (58%). EABL was the most active counter on the day as 280k shares traded with the counter closing flat at KES 304. There was some profit taking witnessed in Safcom as the telco fell 1.8% to close the day at KES 8.35. Strong foreign demand returned to Equity Bank as the counter gained 1.5% to close at KES 34.25.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.10%, USD 802k

Not much on the go in Port Louis today as value traded amounted to USD 802k. There was a cross of 28.5k shares in Vivo Energy at Rs139.00 which tried to kick-start activity. MCB was rather quiet as 20k shares changed hands while 1.35m shares traded in SBM over the day.

Nigeria: ASI -0.28%, USD 9.50m

Dire start to the week in Lagos as value traded amounted to $9.50m with most of the big names relatively quiet. There were a few select crosses in the likes of DangSugar ($1.13m) and UACN ($1.07m) which tried in vain to boost activity. Both major sectors ended the day in negative territory with banks falling -0.57% as UBA (-3.64%) dragged the sector lower. Consumers (-0.08%) also ended the day lower as Guinness (-2.22%) was amongst the biggest losers in the sector.

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

South Africa: Top 40 -0.25%, USD 914m

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 0.25% to close at 39,444 while value traded amounted to USD 914m. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 0.42% followed by Industrials which fell 0.17% while Financials gained 0.14%. The Rand was trading at 9.83 and 13.27 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.50%, Mining unch, USD 1.7m

The search for quality saw the industrial index gain +0.50% to 192.48pts. Strong appetite on diversified group Innscor resulted in its +1.2% rise to 82c. This also follows the group’s market update that it is working on an aggressive budget to grow revenue and margins in FY14 after mising FY13 targets. OK firmed +3.9% to end at 27c with sellers emerging at that level. Seedco (heading for a possible corporate restructuring) rose +1.3% to 82.01c on strong demand. Other gains were in Dairibord up +5.6% to 19c, Old Mutual advancing +1.5% to 233.5c and PPC adding +1.7% to 240c. Elsewhere the mining index was flat at 48.34 pts with no activity taking place. Uncharacteristic of a Monday the value of trade was up 54.4% to $1.7m spurred by resurgent foreign demand.

African Currencies