African Market Watch: Monday, 16th March 2015

Botswana:
The Botswana Stock Exchange’s (BSE) domestic index gained 4.75pts (0.05%) to close at 9,674.15pts (with year-to-year performance 1.82%) and foreign index remained the same as last previous trading day to close at 1571.11pts (year-to-date of 0.41%). The market capitalisation recorded at BWP 415,603.92mn, the total volume and turnover were recorded at 188,475 shares and BWP 533,307.45 respectively. The market sentiment was positive today, as the market breadth (advancer/decliners ratio) berthed at 3x with 3 advancers and 1 decliner. The gainers were Barclays Bank of Botswana (gained 5.3% to close at BWP 4.00), Chobe Holding Limited (rose by 0.2% to close at BWP 4.57) and Sefelana Holding Company (advanced 0.2% to close BWP 1,057). However, First National Bank Botswana Limited lost 0.3% to close at BWP 3.78. On the ETFs counter Newgold surged by 140thebe trading at BWP 112.90 per unit.

Egypt:
The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) indices ended on negative note, and market capitalisation fell by around EGP 2.0 billion. The benchmark index EGX30 dropped 2.03% to close at 9,259.01 points. The small and mid-cap index EGX70 dropped 1.6% to close at 549.36 points, while the broader index EGX100 plummeted by 1.52% lower to 1,108.24 points. Today’s turnover amounted to EGP 1,856.8 million, generated from exchanging nearly 103.6 million shares. The market sentiment was negative today, as the market breadth (advancer/decliners ratio) berthed at 0.13x with 17 advancers and 127 decliners. On the one hand, topping the gainer price list were Rubex Plastics, Orascom Construction Limited and Orascom Construction Industries gained 7.38%, 6.69% and 5.43% to close at EGP 9.89, EGP 102.05 and EGP 5.43 respectively. On the other hand, topping the loser price list were Atlas For Land Reclamation and Agricultural Processing, Al Arafa For Investment And Consultancies and Alexandria New Medical Center lost 5.67%, 5.56% and 4.65% to close EGP 17.63, EGP 0.17 and EGP 21.53 respectively. Local, Arab and foreign institutions were net sellers by EGP 35 million, EGP 32 million and EGP 10 million, respectively, while Arab retail investors were net buyers by EGP 55.5 million.

Ghana:
Ghana bourse closes on a positive note today, with the benchmark Composite index rose by 1.69pts to 2,191.15pts; this brings its year-to-date to -3.09%. Likewise, the financial index gained 3.56pts to 2,187.15pts (-2.52% year-to-year performance). The market capitalization was recorded at GHS63.635billion. A market activity measured by volume was recorded at 66,325 in twelve shares and total turnover GHS 115,392. CAL Bank, SIC Insurance, Ghana Oil, UT Bank and Standard Chartered Bank were the top five most actively traded shares by volume accounted for c.90% of total traded volume. The market sentiment was neutral today, as the market breadth (advancer/decliners ratio) berthed at 1x with 2 advancers and 2 decliners. The HFC Bank (gained 4.00% to close at GHS 1.30) and Standard Chartered Bank (0.05% to close at GHS 20.27) were the two gainers. The two losers were SIC Insurance (lost 4.55% to close at GHS 0.21) and PBC Limited (fell by 7.69 to close at GHS 0.12).

Kenya:
The NSE 20 Index lost8.14pts (0.15%) to close at 5,342.17pts today. Likewise, Nairobi All Share Index lost 0.35pts (0.20%) to close at 171.66pts with total market capitalization at KES 2,397 trillion. The total volume of shares traded closed at 5.64mn as total turnover closed at KES 515.77mn depicting a decline of 75.27 percent and 14.05 percent respectively. The top mover was Safaricom with a turnover of KES 187.55mn, representing 36.36 percent of the day’s total market turnover. The market sentiment was positive today, as the market breadth (advancer/decliners ratio) berthed at 1.6x with 23 advancers and 14 decliners. On the one hand, topping the gainers list were Crown Paints (6.5% to close at KES 113.00), Uchumi Supermarket Ltd (6.15% to close at KES 10.35) and Mumias Sugar (5.66% to close at KES 2.80). On the other hand, topping the loser chart were BOC Kenya, Flame Tree, and SASINI lost 5.94%, 5.50% and 5.45% respectively. Foreign buys closed at 60.11 percent of total turnover while foreign sales closed at 66.48 percent of turnover.

Malawi:
Both Malawi All Share Index and Domestic Index gained 2.15pts (0.014%) to close at 14,917.67pts and 1.17pts (0.015%) to 11,745.36pts respectively. However, the Foreign Index remained unchanged to close at 1762.13pts. Total market capitalization was recorded at MWK 7,509.83 billion and total volume was recorded at 1,241,103 in twelve deals. Malawi Properties Investment Company Limited is the lone gainer 1.63% to close at MWK 500 but other stocks remained unchanged.

Mauritius:
Both indices end in negative today, the Semdex lost 6.42pts (0.32%) to 1,971.52pts and the Sem-10 lost 0.73 (0.19%) to 372.52pts. The market capitalization recorded at MUR 219.19billion and overall total volume trade recorded at 3.44mn and turnover on the market amounted to MUR 26.69mn, mainly geared towards SBM Holdings, Ciel Limited, Cim Financials and Sun Resorts which accounted for 94% of total volume traded. The market sentiment was negative today, as the market breadth (advancer/decliners ratio) berthed at 0.3x with 3 advancers and 11 decliners. The three gainers were Ciel Limited, POLICY and Cim Financial gained 1.47%, 1.39% and 0.21% to close at MUR 6.90, MUR 7.30 and MUR 9.70 respectively. On the other hand, the topping losers chart were Bramer Banking (lost 8.70% to close at MUR 4.20), Air Mauritius Limited (fell 1.33% to close at MUR 14.80) and New Mauritius Hotels Ltd (declined 1.21% to close at MUR 61.25).

Morocco:
Morocco’s benchmark stock index (Madex Index) dropped 0.50% to close at 10,424.09pts (8.36% year-to-date performance) with total market capitalization at MAD 524.89bn and market activities as measured by value closed at MAD 44.05mn. Likewise, Moroccan most active share index (MADEX) closed at 8,561.71pts (lost 0.54% compared to previous trading day). In term of sector performance, top gainers were Distributions, Mining and Engineering & Equipments sectors gained 3.30%, 1.20% and 1.00% respectively. However, top loser sectors were Forest & Paper (5.96%), Construction & Building Materials (1.55%) and Real Estate (0.70%). The market sentiment was negative today, as the market breadth (advancer/decliners ratio) berthed at 0.9x with 17 advancers and 20 decliners. Label  Vie top gainer chart at 6.00% to close at MAD 1,166 while Med Paper top the loser chart by5.96% to close at MAD 16.74.  Furthermore, FTSE CSE Morocco 15 Index dropped 0.67% to close at 9,289.53pts (5.32% year-to-date performance) and FTSE CSE Morocco All-Liquid Index dropped 0.74% to close at 8,805.32pts (9.23% year-to-date performance).

Nigeria:
The Nigerian benchmark index closed down as the All Share Index-ASI dipped 2.6% to close at 29,929.56. We attribute this to sustained profit taking in largely capitalized stocks such as NIGERIAN BREWERIES (5.0%), DANGOTE CEMENT (2.0%) and GUARANTY (4.0%). Similarly, market capitalization depreciated N263.6bn to close at N9.80tn. Market activity measured by value and volume traded dropped 69.5% and 82.9% to close at N1.8bn and 299.0m units respectively. All sectors indices trended south save for the Insurance sector index which rose by 0.2%. Taking the lead in the losing trend was the Banking index which declined 4.8% on the back drop of price depreciation in ETI (4.9%), UBA (4.8%), and GUARANTY (4.0%). Other decliners by sector were Industrial Goods (3.0%), Oil & Gas (2.7%) and Consumer Goods (2.2%). Market sentiment measured by advancers/decliners ratio remained negative at the close of market today, pegged at 0.3x as 9 stocks advanced against 34 decliners. GLAXOSMITH (5.0%), COSTAIN (4.9%), and AIICO (4.6%) championed the gainers’ chart while TRANSCORP (5.0%), SEPLAT (5.0%), and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (5.0%) made the most losses. Today’s market performance suggests further sell pressure in subsequent sessions in our view, even as we expect the current profit taking to continue ahead of the approaching general elections.

Rwanda:
The Rwandan Stock Exchange All Share Index (RSE ALSI) and RSE RSI remained constant to close at 137.33 and 234.63 respectively. Total number of shares traded 3,800 representing a turnover of 1.14mn.

South Africa:
The All Share index ended 0.66% higher today to close at 52,139.15pts. Similarly, the benchmark Top-40 index advanced by 0.72% to close at 46,202.57pts and Industrial 25 Index gained 1.02% to close at 66,676.32pts. Likewise Financial Top-15 index increased by 1.12% to close at 44,740.14pts.The market sentiment was negative today, as the market breadth (advancer/decliners ratio) berthed at 0.9x with 163 advancers and 185 decliners. Investec Property Fund (IPF) climbed 6.73% after investors traded 576,238 shares in 231 deals, which saw the share price rise to ZAR 18.09 by close of day. Truworths International gained 4.24% to sell at ZAR 88.50 after 3,069 deals exchanged a total of 1,786,739 shares today. ENX Group in the industrial suppliers sector lost 7.89% after 7 deals traded 66,575 shares, sending the share price down to ZAR 2.10. After 111,455 shares were bought and sold in 27 deals, Montauk Holdings (MNK) in the oil sector fell 5.64% to ZAR 3.68

Tanzania:
The Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSEI) shred off 0.21% to close at 2,592.85pts and market capitalisation recorded at TZS 22.71bn. Likewise, the DSE TSI decreased by 0.33% to close at 4,755.58pts. Today, DSE recorded a total turnover of TZS 80.47 mln from 33,370 shares traded in 78 deals compared to the previous session which recorded a turnover of TZS 2,217.25 mln from 192,046 shares traded in 77 deals. The market sentiment was neutral today; Tanga Cement Company was the highest gainer of the day shoving up by 7.44 percent to close at TZS 4,790.00. Swala declined by 8.33percent to close the day at TZS 550 to be the highest loser of the day.

Tunisia:
The Tunis Stock Exchange benchmark index (TUNINDEX) lost 6.55pts (0.12%) to close at 5,363.36pts (year-to-year performance of 5.34%) with the market capitalization at TND 18.38bn. Likewise the Tunis top-20 capitalised index also declined by 0.20% to close at 2,293.34pts. Today’s turnover amounted to TND3.29mn, while traded volume 715,448 shares sealed in 57 listed companies. The market sentiment was negative today, as the market breadth (advancer/decliners ratio) berthed at 0.48x with 13 advancers and 27 decliners. Topping the price gainers list was SCB gained 2.74% to close at TND 5.99 and Carthage Cement lost 3.09% to close at TND 1.88.

Uganda:
The Uganda Securities Exchange All Share Index (USE ALSI) went down by 1.52% to close at 2,009.26pts with market capitalization recorded at UGX 27,465mn. However, the Ugandan Stock Exchange Local Share Index (USE LSI) remained at the same level to close the day at 324.52pts. A total of 19.04mn shares were traded indicating an increase from yesterday’s 423, shares. Total turnover came to a close of UGX 946.20mn. The market sentiment was negative today, as the market breadth, with zero advancers and 10 decliners. The losers were Uchumi Supermarkets Limited (-7.19% to close at UGX 310.00), Kenya Airway (-2.95% to close at UGX 296.00), Jubilee Holdings (-2.59% to close at UGX 17,437.00), and Equity Bank Limited (2.26% to close UGX 1,655.00.

Zimbabwe:
The Industrial index opened the week by shedding 0.70pts (0.42%) to close at 162.00pts, with total market capitalization of US$4.21billion. Today’s total volume and total turnover were recorded at 4.419mn (10 trades) and US$53,576mn respectively. The market sentiment was negative today, as the market breadth, with three advancers and three decliners. On the one hand, the gainers was Colcom Holdings Limited moved up a cent to 27 cents. On the other hand, TSL dropped 3 cents to settle at 21 cents and Mashonaland Holdings Limited lost 0.10 cents to close at 2.20 cents. Delta Corporation Limited and Econet Telecoms traded unchanged at 109 cents and 51 cents respectively. However, The Mining index was flat at 49.79 points.

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