Movers & Shakers: February 18, 2014

Botswana: DCI -0.13%, USD 185k

A better day in Gaborone but still nothing to write home about as value traded amounted to USD 185k thanks to Letshego (674k shares).

Egypt: EGX 30 +1.55%, USD 166m

The Egyptian market managed to continue to trade on positive sentiment leaving the EGX30 to end the day up 1.55% to close at 7,840.68 points. The market continued to trade improved volumes, with a total turnover of USD 166m. After yesterday’s strong rally, the EGX30 managed to continued to gain lead again mainly form local, international, and GCC institutional investors targeting mostly blue-chips such as COMI, ESRS, and SWDY, and leaving each to end the day up 3.49%, 2.24% and 3.34% respectively. Local retail investors continued with their bearish sentiment targeting mid/small caps such as RREI (-5.07%), AMER (-0.81%), and EIUD (-0.44%).

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.23%, USD 9.8m

Activity increased today as value traded amounted to $9.8m thanks to an increase in foreign investor participation (59.2%) as they were net buyers and accounted for 73.3% of total purchases. A large cross in EABL where the buyer was foreign while the seller was local drove activity as 1.71m shares traded in the brewer. Weakness continued in the likes of Safcom (-1.3%), Equity Bank (-0.8%) and Kenya Commercial Bank (-0.6%) as foreigners accounted for the majority of sales in the names.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.27%, USD 870k

A dull day in Port Louis. The Sem-7 gained 49bps led higher by gains in MCB (+12bps, Rs212.25), SBM (+94bps, Rs1.07) and Terra (+4.5%, Rs39). The only faller was NMH which lost 60bps to Rs83.

Nigeria: ASI +1.09%, USD 23.7m

Banks (+1.99%) continued to bounce today thanks to strong moves higher in the likes of Access (+4.74%) and Guaranty Trust Bank (+3.60%). Time will tell whether or not this is just bottom picking by a few speculators or if it is actually a sustainable rally in banking stocks. The positive sentiment spilt over to Consumers (+1.14%) with PZ Cusson (+4.99%), IntBrew (+4.11%) and Nigerian Breweries (+3.06%) all putting in good performances. Activity was however rather dull as value traded amounted to $23.7m with tier-1 banking stocks Guaranty ($3.77m), First Bank ($2.99m) and Zenith ($2.62m) leading the way.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +0.78%, USD 1.56bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.78% to close at 42,909 while value traded amounted to USD 1.56bn. Resources were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 1.03% followed by Industrials and Financials which gained 0.78% and 0.18% respectvely. The Rand was trading at 10.91 and 15.01 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.34%, Mining unch, USD 3.66m

The ZSE swung back into the black posting 0.34% gains to close call at 189.68pts. The mainstream index’s recovery was on the back of gains in heavies Delta (+.06%), Innscor (+2.6%) and OK (+0.05%) among other risers. Delta has been volatile dragging or pulling the industrials with it riding on its weight on the ZSE. On a year to date basis Delta has lost 10% while the index has shed 6% of its value. In the session Innscor added 2.6% to 78c while OK recovered marginally to 19.5c. Mixed trades characterized the session with two heavies shedding value. Amidst the turbulence, Econet among the heavies has been more stable in relative terms, opening the year at 60c while closing at 62c today. The Mining Index was unchanged at 33.66pts for the 6th session in a row. Seedco was the most sought after stock as foreigners splurged on the seed maker in a deal worth $2.2m.

African Currencies