African Thoughts: May 25, 2015

Nigeria:

Activity increased in Lagos by +11.89% last week but it was still nothing to write home about as turnover amounted to a very dull $81.4m with the majority of foreigners sitting on the sidelines. The most actively traded stocks came in the form of NB, GTB and Zenith. The banking sector closed the week slightly lower with the Index falling -0.16% with losses in GTB (-1.36%) and UBA (-1.35%) amongst the worst performers. Consumers came under some pressure with the sector falling -1.19% as Dangote Flour (-12.28%) weighed heavily on the sector. The Central Bank of Nigeria's Monetary Policy Committee kept the key interest rate unchanged at 13% on Tuesday.

Kenya:

The market came under pressure last week with the NSE 20 Index closing at a new 2015 low at 4,879.95 (-4.6% YTD) as foreigners remained net sellers with an outflow of $1.4m. The market was also rather quiet as turnover fell -40.4% to $39.4m. Safcom witnessed the biggest net outflows ($3.8m) as the telco fell -0.9%. Foreign demand managed to push KNCB +2.6% higher while banking counterpart EQBNK came under pressure and fell -5.1%. EABL (-0.3%) closed slightly lower and was the second most active counter over the course of the week with foreigners being net sellers. Kenya's fiscal deficit widened to 6.5% of GDP for the 12 month period ending March 2015.

Zimbabwe:

Another slow week in Harare as turnover amounted to a dire $2.58m with some activity in the likes of MASH, Delta and Econet. The market managed to close higher with the Industrial Index gaining +1.24% thanks to gains in Econet (+6.29%) and Delta (+1.90%). Unfortunately there is not much to report from the news front.

Mauritius:

Not much on the go in Port Louis last week as turnover amounted to $6.9m while the Semdex closed slightly lower, falling -0.05% as foreigners remained very quiet. Activity in market heavyweights MCBG, SBMH and NMH helped spur what little activity there was. The two major banking stocks MCBG (-0.9%) and SBMH (-1.0%) came under some pressure. Hoteliers ended mixed with SUN closing unchanged, LUX gaining +0.8% while NMH fell -0.4%.