Movers & Shakers: February 05, 2014

Botswana: DCI -0.11%, USD 718k

It was a decent day in Gaborone as value traded amounted to USD 718k thanks to a cross in Primtime of 2.3m shares which accounted for 83% of today's turnover.

Egypt: EGX 30 +0.77%, USD 106m

The market managed to pick its bullish momentum to regain some of yesterday’s losses leaving the EGX30 to end the day up 0.77% to close at 7,343.53 points. The market traded a total turnover of EGP738 million. The market managed to pick up some bullish momentum lead by institutional buying (local) along with retail investors targeting names such as PIOH, ACGC and ESRS leaving each to end the day up 4.73%, 1.74% and 1.43%, yet GCC investors along with international institutional investors continued to be net sellers. The real estate sector managed to regain interest with names such as PHDC, TMGH and AMER witnessing decent volumes leaving each to end the day up 1.33%, 0.71%, and 0.83% respectively.

Kenya: NSE 20 -0.28%, USD 7.4m

Activity fell in Nairobi with foreign participation extremely low as value traded amounted to $7.4m. Diamond Trust Bank was the most active name thanks to a cross as a total of 696k shares traded with the seller being foreign while the buyer was local. Local activity drove I&M Bank today as a total of 1m shares traded in the normally illiquid stock. Local demand was behind the rally in Equity Bank today as the banking giant managed to gain an impressive 3.3%. on relatively light volume of 848k shares. Barclays Bank is set to kick-off the earnings season tomorrow with FY 2013 results due out before the open of the session.

Mauritius: Semdex -0.16%, USD 1.45m

The Semdex fell again although the Sem-7 actually showed a slight increase. This was due to gains in SBM (+98bps, Rs1.03) and IBL (+23bps, Rs110) which was mildly offset by MCB (-12bps, Rs205.50).

Nigeria: ASI -0.45%, USD 45.5m

It was a stellar day from an activity point of view in Lagos today as value traded amounted to an impressive $45.5m. This should however be taken with a big pinch of salt as a few crosses drove turnover with DangeCem ($16.56m), Forte Oil ($5.41m), Nigerian Breweries ($4.88m), Guaranty Trust Bank ($4.02m) and Zenith ($3.64m) leading the way. Banks closed slightly lower with the Bank Index falling -0.09% which was largely attributed to UBA's -2.63% fall while Access managed to gain +1.09%. Consumers (-0.49%) closed lower Guinness (-1.33%), Flour Mills (-1.08%) and Nigerian Breweries (-0.98%) being amongst the worst performers.

Please note that the index figure above is correct at the time of writing.

South Africa: Top 40 +0.06%, USD 1.59bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.06% to close at 39,967 while value traded amounted to USD 1.59bn. Industrials were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 0.11% followed by Resources which gained 0.10% while Financials fell 0.14%. The Rand was trading at 11.14 and 15.13 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.20%, Mining unch, USD 1.71m

Turnover fell today as value traded amounted to $1.71m. Today’s value of trades typified a 6 day low while the highest level attained being $22.7m last Wednesday. Noteworthy is the varying levels of turnover attained in the period which has not followed a consistent path fluctuating between the aforementioned levels. The higher turnover values realized over the 6 day period were buoyed by special bargains spread across 4 sessions which grossed $24m against a total of $36.8m in value exchanged. In today’s callover volume traded likewise retreated 89% to 2.2m shares. Delta buoyed both value and volume traded contributing 85% to the former while contributing 53% to the later. The Industrial Index managed to gain 0.20% thanks to a rally in Delta (+1.2%).

African Currencies