African Thoughts: April 21, 2017


Nigeria:

With the shortened trading week as a result of the Easter break, it was almost a fait accompli before the week even started that it was going to be slow going in Nigeria, and as expected, turnover amounted to a dire $19.34m. The market came under pressure on low volume with the ASI falling -1.26% thanks to heavy losses in banking stocks and consumers as the sectors fell -1.65% and -1.03% respectively. Nigerian Breweries released Q1 2017 results on Friday which saw revenue increase +17.71% while PAT increased +9.51%.

Kenya:

It was not a bad week on the activity front in Kenya, considering that it was a shortened one as total value traded for the week amounted to $25.21m thanks to some action in KNCB, Safcom and Stanbic. The market managed to close in positive territory with the NSE 20 Index gaining +0.84% thanks to a strong move in KNCB as the banking giant closed +5.30% higher. The other market heavyweights Safcom (-2.30%), EABL (-0.83%) and EQBNK (-0.76%) closed the week lower. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics released their economic survey on Thursday which saw GDP growth of 5.8% for 2016, up marginally from 5.7% in 2015.

Zimbabwe:

The trading week was even shorter in Zimbabwe as the Easter holiday was extended to Tuesday, and as such, there were only three trading days. Unfortunately there was not much to report on at all with total turnover amounting to a very disappointing %912k. On the news front, Econet announced that their rights issue was 74.6% subscribed.

Mauritius:

Mauritius was one of the only markets that did not close its doors over the Easter break. Unfortunately the few “extra” trading days failed to spur on any decent activity with total turnover for the week amounting to a very sluggish $3.83m with MCBG, PBL and Ciel accounting for the bulk of the action. On the positive side, the market continued full steam ahead with the Semdex closing +0.95% higher, taking the YTD gain to +10.84%. MCBG (+0.6%) closed the week at a new all-time high of Rs228.25while SBMH came under pressure and fell -3.3%. PBL was another counter reaching an all-time high, gaining +2.4% to close at Rs434.75. Hoteliers also had a solid week with NMH (O) (+8.5%), LUX (+2.6%) and SUN (+2.2%) all closing higher.

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