Movers & Shakers: February 25, 2014

Botswana: DCI -0.21%, USD 202k

Activity improved markedly in Gaborone although still quiet. Choppies (392t) was the most active stock followed by some action in Sefalana (724t) and Sechaba (2053t).

Egypt: EGX 30 -0.21%, USD 158m

The market continued to trade on mixed sentiment leaving the EGX30 to end the day down 0.21% to close at 8.029.22 points. Volumes continue to be healthy as the market traded a total turnover of USD 158m. The market started the day with notable positive sentiment to reach a high of 8,099.34 lead by notable buying accumulation from international institutions along with local retail investors. Names such as AMER (+6.67%), OTMT (+4.84%), and ACGC (+3.76%) witnessed above-average volumes. Towards the last hour of trading the market witnessed a notable selling wave with local retail investors pressuring the market along with local institutions who were sellers since session's open. Profit booking was evident across most bluechips, with names such as HRHO (-1.11%), COMI (-1.03%), and TMGH (-0.88%) witnessing notable pressure on lower-than-average volumes.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.56%, USD 9.4m

A large cross in Equity Bank at KES 32 (both sides foreign) increased turnover on an otherwise quiet day. Foreign participation was also much improved on the back of this cross which comes a couple of days ahead of the bank’s results which are due out on Thursday afternoon. EABL continues to run and gained a further 2.3% today to KES 270 which was mostly attributed to strong local buying. Safcom closed up 90bps at KES 11.55 while KNCB fell by 60bps to KES 43.75.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.11%, USD 817k

The Mauritian bourse ticked higher today thanks to strength in SBM (+95bps, Rs1.06) which was offset slightly by MCB (-23bps, Rs212.50). The rest of the stocks were unchanged.

Nigeria: ASI +1.17%, USD 27.6m

Banks continue to rebound spectacularly. The sector gains 4% with all names closing in the green. The top performers were FBNH (+9.7%, N13.80), Skye Bank (+10%, N3.80) and UBA (+6.5%, N7.75). Unfortunately the consumers could not follow suit and actually lost 39bps although outside of NB (-3bps, N145.88) the sector was very quiet. In the cements, most of the action was in Wapco and DangCem which closed at N105 and N237.97 respectively.

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

South Africa: Top 40 -1.02%, USD 1.38bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 1.02% to close at 42,442 while value traded amounted to USD 1.38bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 2.38% followed by Industrials and Financials which fell 0.47% and 0.10% respectively. The Rand was trading at 10.72 and 14.72 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.19%, Mining +2.77%, USD 640k

Zimbabwe remains quiet while the main index lost ground for the 3rd straight session. Econet and CBZ have bucked the soft trend as we saw Econet gain 2% to 64.71c and CBZ gain 3% to 25.52c. Delta fell by 1% to 122.99c while BATZ lost 37bps to 1345c after releasing poor FY results which showed a 14% decrease in sales. Foreign action on both sides remains thin.

African Currencies