African Thoughts: July 11, 2016

Nigeria:

Unfortunately it was a dire week in Lagos with the market only being open on two days due to the Eid celebrations and as such, activity took a dip with turnover falling -78.65% to $13m. There was a small bit of activity in the usual heavyweights GTB and Zenith. The market closed the week lower with the ASI falling -1.54% with banking stocks being the hardest hit as the sector closed -2.62% lower with heavy losses in ETI (-4.96%), UBA (-3.25%), Zenith (-0.96%) and GTB (-0.86%) while tier-2 banks were particularly weak. Consumer stocks were also weaker with the sector losing -1.28% thanks to losses in GSK (-9.73%) and Guinness (-4.74%).

Kenya:

It was also a shortened trading week in Nairobi with the market being closed on Thursday for the Eid celebrations. Activity was also down as a result thereof with turnover falling -18.7% to $26.8m. The market managed to close in positive territory for the first time in two weeks with the NSE 20 Index gaining +1.0% while foreigners were net sellers to the tune of $68k, as they accounted for 86.5% of activity. Most of the activity was centered on EQBNK as the name accounted for 46.8% of turnover and recorded the highest net foreign inflows to the tune of $1.4m. Safcom was the second most active stock for the week as the telco accounted for 18.5% of proceedings and recorded the highest foreign outflows for the second week in a row ($759k). The two major banking stocks ended the week mixed with EQBNK gaining +1.9% while KNCB fell -0.7%.

Zimbabwe:

It was a much better week from an activity point of view in Harare, but still nothing to write home about as turnover increased +82.12% to $2.79m. Market heavyweights SeedCo (30%), Delta (22%) and Econet (22%) dominated what little activity there was. On the positive side, the market managed to close higher with the Industrial Index gaining +0.58%, trimming the YTD loss to -11.40%. There were good gains in OK Zim (+10.00%) and Delta (+4.10%) while Innscor closed -1.73% lower.

Mauritius:

The market managed to close the week slightly higher in Port Louis with the Semdex gaining +0.38% (YTD -2.9%). MCBG drove the market higher with the heavyweight gaining +0.7% while SBMH closed unchanged. Hoteliers had a rather solid week with LUX (+1.3%), NMH (+1.0%) and SUN (+0.7%) all closing higher. It was another average week from an activity point of view with the market being closed on Wednesday for the Eid celebrations as turnover amounted to $4.69m with MCBG accounting for 60.8% of turnover while the rest of the market was rather dull.