Movers & Shakers: January 10, 2014

Botswana: DCI +0.13%, USD 59k

Nothing on the go in Gaborone today as value traded amounted to another dissapointing USD 59k.

Egypt: Closed for the day.

Kenya: NSE 20 +0.30%, USD 9.4m

A good end to the week in Nairobi with value traded amounting to $9.4m as Safcom once again dominated turnover with 33.43m shares changing hands as participation in the telco was evenly spread between locals and foreigners. It was surprising to see Diamond Trust Bank at the top of the list in terms of activity with 462k shares traded thanks to two cross of 150k shares and 200k shares (both at KES 205). Kenya Commercial Bank and Equity Bank both came under pressure with the counters falling -2.1% and -2.2% respectively on fairly solid volume.

Mauritius: Semdex +0.06%, USD 1.87m

The market ended the week off on a strong note (from an activity point of view) as value traded amounted to USD 1.87m with MCB once again dominating proceedings as 150k shares traded in the counter. There was an average amount of activity in SBM as 9.45m shares traded while NMH saw 35k shares change hands. Tourist arrivals increased by 1.40% in December 2013.

Nigeria: ASI +0.28%, USD 38.1m

It was a very solid day from a turnover point of view as value traded amounted to $38.1m with large crosses in Nestle ($11.99m), Oando ($5.64m), ETI ($3.73m) and Zenith ($2.77m) driving activity. Banking stocks gained for a second consecutive day as the roller coaster ride in the sector continues with the Index gaining +0.36% thanks to a solid gain in UBA (+3.69%) and tier-2 banking stocks Skye Bank (+3.64%) and FCMB (+2.37%). Consumers (-0.09%) closed slightly lower with Nestle (-0.86%) and Nigerian Breweries (-0.60%) being amongst the worst performers in the sector. Some of the cements performed very well with CCNN gaining +4.87% while WAPCO gained +1.77%.

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

South Africa: Top 40 +0.28%, USD 1.09bn

The JSE ended the day higher with the Top 40 Index gaining 0.28% to close at 40,834 while value traded amounted to USD 1.09bn. Industrials were the day's biggest gainers with the Index gaining 0.60% followed by Financials which gained 0.54% while Resources fell 0.67%. The Rand was trading at 10.68 and 14.63 to the USD and EUR respectively by the time local markets closed.

Zimbabwe: Industrials +0.61%, Mining -1.04%, USD 3.58m

The ZSE continued to recover from the false start to the year where the bourse endured three succesive losses on the back of a bleak economic outlook, posting another gain in today’s session. Driving daily gains were heavy caps Econet and Delta to sustain the northwards trail. Econet and PPC were among the top gainers notching 2.9% and 2.13% to 63c and 240c respectively while Delta added 0.71% to 142c to take industrials to 204.00 pts on a 0.61% gain on prior level. The Mining Index however dipped 1.04% to 41.97 pts on Bindura’s -7.9% loss to 1.75c to earn a spot among the worst perfomers. Econet and Delta were the most sought after stocks on the ZSE today with both stocks collectively contributing 89.2% of the daily turnover. A block in Econet of circa 4m shares with a value of $2.5m highlighted the day’s trading activity. The block helped volumes grow 9.34% to 8.64m shares while value of trades surged +23.42% and closed the day at $3.58m. Foreigners drove liquidity with purchases coming in $2.98m being 83% of the total value for the day.

African Currencies