Movers & Shakers: March 12, 2014

Botswana: DCI -0.33%, USD 6.69m

It was an extremely active day in Gaborone as value traded amounted to USD 6.69m thanks to crosses in BIHL (3.67m shares) and Chobe (4.22m shares)

Egypt: EGX 30 -0.15%, USD 171m

The market could not hold its ground after trading most of session day in the greens. The EGX30 ended the day down 0.15% to close at 8,096.94 points. The market continued to trade healthy volumes, with shares worth USD 171m changing Hands. ESRS, GTHE, and COMI witnessed notable selling pressure leaving each to end the day down 1.77%, 1.47%, and 1.19%, respectively. ETEL continued to gain strong interest after its CEO stated the unified license would be issued soon and that he expects regulator backing. The stock ended the day up 1.89% to close at EGP16.19. OTMT lead the market in terms of volumes to end the day up 1.34%. This was mainly attributed to news that Orascom TMT Investment formed a joint venture with Accelero and Switch Supernap.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.41%, USD 9.5m

Activity continued to increase in Nairobi as value traded amounted to $9.5m as locals accounted for 58.3% of activity. A large cross in NMG (90% foreign on both sides) helped boost activity as 761k shares traded ahead of FY 2013 results next week. Foreign sales (79.1%) drove Equity Bank (-0.7%) lower as 5.27m shares changed hands. Kenya Commercial Bank on the other hand managed to gain 1.1% on local demand. Safcom was extremely quiet as only 3.23m shares traded. Kenya Airways fell 0.4% after a low-cost carrier Fly540 said that it would petition the competition authority over KQ’s new low-cost subsidiary expected to launch beginning of April.

Mauritius: Closed for the day.

Nigeria: ASI -0.30%, USD 19.47m

It was another rather uneventful day in Lagos as value traded amounted to $19.47m. The top-tier banks dominated activity with GTB ($3.93m), Zenith ($2.69m) and Access ($2.18m) leading the way. Banks rebounded after yesterday's late sell-off with the Bank Index gaining +0.42% thanks largely to Zenith (+2.64%). Consumers (-0.73%) were dragged lower by poor performances in Guinness (-3.81%), PZ Cussons (-2.86%) and Flour Mills (-2.56%).

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

South Africa: Top 40 -1.04%, USD 1.64bn

The JSE ended the day lower with the Top 40 Index falling 1.04% to close at 42,607 while value traded amounted to USD 1.64bn. Resources were the day's biggest losers with the Index falling 1.13% followed by Industrials and Financials which fell 0.90% and 0.89% respectively. The Rand was trading at 10.86 and 15.06 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials -0.50%, Mining -3.49%, USD 620k

Most indicators trekked southwards in mid-week trades as sentiment remains low. Trades which significantly jumped in the opening session of the week have since come down below the psychological $1m averaging $0.62m per session. The industrial Index on the other hand plummeted a further 0.50% to 186.47pts in today’s session. Econet, Delta and Innscor eased 3%, 0.2% and 1% to 65c, 122c and 73c respectively.

African Currencies