African Thoughts: November 16, 2015

Nigeria:

It was a much better week in terms of activity in Lagos with turnover increasing +54% to $117.8m. The market got off to an absolute flyer from an activity point of view in Lagos on Monday thanks to large crosses in GTB (310m shares), NB (26m shares) and Access (600m shares). Things however slowed downed drastically mid-week, but then we did see some return of interest on Friday with a couple of decent crosses in Zenith and Seplat. The market closed the week lower with the ASI falling -1.14% as Consumers (-2.49%) were a major drag on the market with NB (-6.12%), Guinness (-5.77%) and 7UP (-5.71%) all coming under pressure. Banks were also weaker with the sector falling -0.97% thanks mostly to ETI (-4.86%). On the news front: Guinness was fined $5m earlier in the week by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for certain regulatory infractions.

Kenya:

It was a rather woeful week in Nairobi from an activity point of view as turnover fell -46% to $23.1m (the lowest weekly turnover since January). CFC Stanbic unseated Equity Bank as the most active stock thanks to a few decent crosses with the bank also recording the highest net foreign inflows ($2.4m). Foreign investors turned net sellers in Equity Bank and were also large sellers in EABL. The market managed to close in positive territory for the second straight week with the NSE 20 Index gaining +1.2% thanks to strong moves in the likes of Umeme (+9.9%), Centum (+8.4%) and Barclays (+7.9%). Safcom touched a 5 month high of KES 16.05 after releasing H1 numbers the week before.

Zimbabwe:

Another disastrous week from a performance point of view in Harare as the Industrial Index fell -3.11%, taking the YTD loss to -22.95%. The Index is now at a five year low of 125.43 points, last seen in July 2010. Delta released H1 2016 results which saw attributable earnings fall -19%. OK Zim also released H1 2016 results with attributable earnings falling a whopping -71.6%. The market was once again very quiet from an activity point of view with turnover falling -48% to $2.3m with some small activity in Delta, Simbisa, NatFoods and Econet.

Mauritius:

It was a better week in Port Louis in terms of activity as turnover increased +39% to $6.4m. This should however be taken with a pinch of salt as there was a large cross in Rock Castle on Friday after it was announced that the counter will be added to the MSCI Frontier Markets Index. The rest of the market was however very quiet with not much on the go in MCBG and SBMH. The market closed the week lower with the Semdex falling -1.11%. Mauritius was firmly entrenched in earnings season last week and we saw MCBG release Q1 2016 results while SBMH released Q3 2015 numbers.