African Thoughts: July 18, 2016

Nigeria:

It was an absolutely dismal week in Lagos last week as we witnessed a complete and utter lack of interest in the market. This was evident as the ASI slipped by 17bps with Banks (-20bps) just dripping steadily lower. There were major losses in Skye Bank (N0.60, -31.03%), Diamond Bank (N1.80, -10.45%), Glaxosmithkline (N18.05, -13.14%) and PZ (N20.60, -10.43%). The Consumers actually gained 95bps driven by the following gains in Honeywell Flour (N1.63, +14.79%), Unilever (N33.00, +3.77%), Flourmills (N22.30, +3.67%) and NB (N134.03, +3.09%). Losers in the Consumer index included Tigerbrands (N4.35, -9.00%), Champion Breweries (N3.80, -5.71%), Guinness (N97.21, -2.78%) and Cadbury (N16.30, -2.40%).

Kenya:

The NASI fell by 1.9% (-5.1% YTD) while the NSE 20 closed down 2.5% (-11% YTD) last week. Market activity (with the exception of a large foreign-foreign cross in Equity bank on Thursday) was extremely low with foreign participants mostly on the sell side. As expected, the "Big 4" names drove both market activity and market direction with all 4 names closing in the red. The banks were the hardest hit as we saw Equity bank close at KES38.25 (-3.8%) while KNCB shed 3.7% to KES32.25. Safcom fell by 1.1% to KES17.35 while EABL closed down 1.8% at KES269.00.

Zimbabwe:

The Industrials fell by a further 14bps (-11.21% YTD) last week on almost non-existent volumes as investors continue to shun the market. There were falls in the likes of Delta (-5.7%, 66.03c), CBZ (-3.7%, 10.5c) and Natfoods (-2.3%, 205c). However, as already mentioned, volumes were practically non-existent for the entire week.

Mauritius:

The Semdex fell by 40bps (-3.3% YTD) while the Sem-10 fell by 60bps (-2.5%) YTD last week. Activity was rather muted each day with the exception of MCBG (-2.1%, Rs208.00). SBMH closed 1.6% higher at Rs0.64.

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