African Thoughts: December 19, 2016

Nigeria:

It was a slightly better week in terms of activity, but still nothing to write home about, as turnover increased $18.35% to $39.93m. A late cross in UBN ($8.4m) on Friday was the main driver behind the increase in activity while the big names were very quiet. It was a very good week in terms of performance with the ASI gaining +3.44%, trimming the YTD loss to -6.76%. Banking stocks were on the charge last week with the sector gaining +6.28% thanks to ETI (+21.13%), GTB (+9.25%) and UBA (+2.51%). Consumers closed the week lower with the sector falling -1.68%, thanks to some weakness in Unilever (-12.07%), Cadbury (-4.04%0 and NB (-2.07%). On the economic front, inflation for November increased +18.5%.

Kenya:

The market closed the week lower for the third week in a row with the NSE 20 Index falling -1.7% (-23.2% YTD) on the back of local selling. It was interesting to note that foreigners were net buyers to the tune of $1.99m. It was an extremely dull week from an activity point of view with turnover falling -14.8% to a rather dire $15.25m. Safcom (-1.3%), EQBNK (unch) and EABL (-0.4%) were the only names worth mentioning from an activity point of view as the three names combined accounted for 69.6% of turnover. EQBNK ($762k) saw the highest net foreign inflows while EABL ($141k) saw the highest net foreign outflows.

Zimbabwe:

There was finally some profit taking in Harare with the Industrial Index falling -1.00% (+28.77% YTD). Weakness in heavyweight stocks Econet (-10.12%), Innscor (-3.20%) and Delta (-2.09%) were drags on the market. Things also slowed down on the activity front with turnover falling -49.52% to $4.61m with action in CBZ (22%), Econet (20%), Delta (19%) and Seedco (18%) driving proceedings. Risk aversion surrounding the bond notes continues to deter foreign investors and it will be interesting to see what 2017 brings.

Mauritius:

The market managed to close the week slightly higher in Port Louis with the Semdex gaining +0.34%, putting the market in positive territory for the year (+0.09%). It was a very quiet week from an activity point of view with turnover amounting to $3.89m as MCBG and NMH dominated what little activity there was. Banking stocks closed the week lower with MCBG falling -0.4% while SBMH fell -1.2%. Hoteliers had a rather good week with NMH gaining +3.0% while SUN and LUX gained +0.6% and 0.4% respectively.