Movers & Shakers: April 09, 2014

Botswana: DCI +0.07%, USD 321k

Activity slowed down in Gaborone today as value traded amounted to USD 321k with Turnstar (1.05m shares) and Barclays (195k shares) driving turnover.

Egypt: EGX 30 +0.83%, USD 93m

The market managed to end the day slightly higher in the second half of the trading session, after a starting the day in the red. The EGX30 ended the day up 0.83% to close at 7,768.11 points. Market volumes were remarkably low, as the market traded a total turnover of USD 93m. The market started the day slightly lower lead by selling pressure from retail investors pushing the EGX30 to a low of 7,651.61 points. Around mid-session local and GCC institutions stepped in the market with a small wave of buying momentum spreading through with notable buying in COMI, OTMT, and HRHO each to end the day up 0.85%, 3.67% and 2.25% respectively. The entire market witnessed decent a rebound end of session witha significant rally in the real estate names such as TMGH, MNHD and OCDI all ending on a positive note.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.21%, USD 6.1m

Activity slowed down today as foreign participation fell to 54.3% with turnover amounting to $6.1m. KNCB gained 0.5% on the back of foreign purchases (89%) and was the day's most active counter. A few decent crosses in ARM helped boost activity in the counter as 1.06m shares traded with foreigners accounting for 95.8% of turnover. Not much on the go in Safcom today as only 4.05m shares traded in the telco. Pan Africa Insurance rose 3.3% after Sanlam (majority shareholder) announced plans to make an acquisition in East Africa.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.05%, USD 1.28m

It was a decent day in Mauritius as value traded amounted to USD 1.28m thanks largely to MCBG as 103k shares traded in the name. SBM was very quiete as only 2.17m shares traded while 17k shares changed hands in NMH.

Nigeria: ASI +0.35%, USD 26.93m

Activity dropped off in Lagos today but it was still a rather decent day as value traded amounted to $26.93m. The most active names came in the form of Zenith ($6.32m), FBNH ($4.66m), NB ($4.29m), WAPCO ($2.54m) and Access ($2.17m). Banks had another good day with the Index gaining +0.76% thanks to Zenith (+1.61%) and UBA (+1.27%) while there were also good performances in tier-2 banks Diamond (+2.42%) and FCMB (+2.29%). Consumers (+0.39%) closed the day higher with good performances from Dangote Sugar (+7.50%), Cadbury (+3.10%) and Nestle (+1.91%) while Guinness (-3.58%) came under some pressure.

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

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.59%, Mining unch, USD 5.48m

A block trade of 3.94m Delta @ 115c worth $4.5m was the highlight of the day as value traded amounted to a very pleasing $5.48m. There was some decent activity in Innscor ($433k) while only 113k Econet traded. The market closed the day lower with the Industrial Index falling -0.59%.

African Currencies