African Market Watch: Thurs, 12th March 2015

Egypt: The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) indices showed mixed performance on Thursday, while market capitalisation fell by around EGP 1.3 billion amid pressure from national and Arab sell-offs. The benchmark index EGX30 erased most of its early gains, ending 0.67% higher at 9,640.77 points. The small and mid-cap index EGX70 sagged 0.11% to close at 556.3 points, while the broader index EGX100 inched 0.02% lower to 1,120.18 points. Thursday’s turnover amounted to EGP 821.9 million, generated from exchanging nearly 95.9 million shares. The market sentiment was negative today, as the market breadth (advancer/decliners ratio) berthed at 1.05x with 80 advancers and 76 decliners. On the one hand, topping the gainer price list were Arab Development & Real Estate Investment, Arab Moltaka Investment Company and Golden Textile gained 26.63%, 6.22% and 4.33% to close at EGP2.33, EGP28.89 and EGP5.78 respectively. On the other hand, topping the loser price list were Nile City Investment, Nasr Company for Civil Works and Misr Chemical lost 18.36%, 9.97% and 5.76% to close at EGP344.28, EGP21.85 and EGP5.4 respectively.  National and Arab traders were net sellers by EGP 19.5 million and EGP 83 million, respectively, while foreign investors ended as net buyers by EGP 102.5 million.

.Ghana: The trading on Ghana bourse close on a positive note. The benchmark Composite index climbed by 3.26pts to 2,182.13pts; this brings its year-to-date to -3.49%. Likewise, the financial index dropped 4.51pts to 2,173.45pts (-3.13% year-to-year performance). The market capitalization was recorded at GHS63.392 billion. Market activities measured by volume and value traded were recorded at 114,787 shares and total value of trade amounted to GHS81,455. Ecobank Translational, CAL Bank, Ghana Commercial Bank, SIC Insurance and Ghana Oil were the top five most actively traded shares by volume accounted for c.88% of total traded volume. The market sentiment was neutral today, as the market breadth (advancer/decliners ratio) berthed at 1x with 1 advancers and 1decliners. HFC Bank gained 4.17% (to close at GHS1.25) and Ecobank Ghana 0.13% to close at GHS7.54.

Kenya: The NSE 20 Index lost 14.89pts (0.28%) to close at 5,347.54pts today. Likewise, Nairobi All Share Index lost 0.29pts (0.17%) to close at 172.42pts with total market capitalization at KES 22,407.22 trillion. The total volume of shares traded closed at 27.32mn as total turnover closed at KES 2,407.22mn depicting an increase of 41.21 percent and 7.18 percent respectively. The top mover was Equity Group with a turnover of KES 168.57mn, representing 27.04 percent of the day’s total market turnover. The market sentiment was positive today, as the market breadth (advancer/decliners ratio) berthed at 1.1x with 19 advancers and 18 decliners. TPS Serena gained 2.24 percent on its share price to close at KES 34.25 to become the highest gainer while National Bank declined by 5.94 percent to close at KES 23.75 to be the highest loser in the market. Furthermore, foreign buys continued with its descent this week closing at 22.71 percent of total turnover compared to 27.61 percent yesterday, while foreign sales went up to 67.86 percent of turnover compared to yesterday’s 60.72 percent.

Malawi: Both Malawi All Share Index and Domestic Index gained 61.04pts (0.41%) and 48.55pts (2.0%) to close at 14,915.52pts and 11,743.65pts respectively. However, the Foreign Index remained unchanged to close at 1762.13pts. Total market capitalization was recorded at US$17,272.66mn and traded value recorded at US$ 24,482.68 exchanged in nine deals. The market sentiment was negative today, as the market breadth (advancer/decliners ratio) berthed with zero advancers and 1 decliners (NICO Holdings Limited lost 7.69 to close at 3,000).

Morocco: Morocco’s benchmark stock index (Madex Index) dropped 0.09% to close at 10,480.59pts (8.94% year-to-date performance) with total market capitalization at MAD 527.43bn and market activities as measured by value closed at MAD 63.17mn. Moroccan most active share index (MADEX) closed at 8,602.30pts (lost 0.09% compared to previous trading day). In term of sector performance, top gainers were Forest & Paper (5.95%), Holding Companies (3.04%) and Material, Software & Computer (1.98%) and top losers were Chemical (1.78%), Distributions (1.42%) and Pharmaceutical Industry (1.31%). Furthermore, FTSE CSE Morocco 15 Index dropped 0.36% to close at 9,406.80pts (6.18% year-to-date performance) and FTSE CSE Morocco All-Liquid Index dropped 0.09% to close at 8,879.81pts (10.16% year-to-date performance). The market sentiment was positive today, as the market breadth (advancer/decliners ratio) berthed at 1.3x with 20 advancers and 16 decliners. Med Paper was top the gainer chart at 5.95% to close at MAD 18.71 while INVOLYS lose 6.00% to close at MAD 155.10.

Namibia: Namibia Overall Index gained 12.82pts (1.12%) to close at 1,153.70pts whereas Namibia domestic index remained unchanged to close at 410.18pts. The market sentiment was positive today, as the market breadth (advancer/decliners ratio) berthed at 2x with 14 advancers and 7 decliners. On the one hand, topping the gainers list were Giyani Namibia, FirstRand, and Santam gained 7.41%, 4.06% and 3.21% to close at NAD 58.00, NAD 5,505.00 and NAD 22,500.00 respectively. On the other hand, topping the losers price list were PALADIN Namibia, BANNERMAN and Truworths International Ltd lost 9.69%, 9.62% and 3.20% to close at NAD 317.00, NAD 47.00 and NAD 8,415.00 respectively.

Nigeria: The Nigerian Stock Market recovered marginally by 34bps from yesterday’s decline to close 30,973.80pts. In the same vein, market capitalization also added N34.9bn to close N10.3tn. Today’s gain is attributable to renewed rally in Banking stocks such as Guaranty Bank (3.2%) and First Bank of Nigeria Holdings (4.9%). Market activity measured by value and volume traded however declined 25.5% and 51.7% to close N2.9bn and 250.6m units respectively. Sector wide performance closed in a blend as the Banking index emerged foremost advancing sector by 1.7%, Insurance and Industrial Goods indices also closed in the green with an increase of 1.1% and 0.1% a piece. On the other hand, the Consumer Goods sector waned by 0.5% as a result of bargains in Dangote Sugar (5.0%) and Unilever (2.3%). Also closing in the red is the Oil & Gas index at 0.4%. Notwithstanding the general market performance, market breadth measured by advancers/gainers ratio closed negative at 0.5x as 13 stocks advanced against 28 decliners. CUTIX (8.6%), University Press Limited (5.2%) and FBNH (4.9%) led the market gainers while DANGSUGA (5.0%), UNIONDICON (5.0%) and SKYEBANK (4.6%) took the farthest dip. We expect investors to tread softly as this week draws to a close.

Rwanda: The Rwandan Stock Exchange All Share Index (RSE ALSI) and RSE RSI remained constant to close at 137.33 and 234.63 respectively. The market capitalization was recorded at RWF 2,929.133bn. Bank of Kigali, Bralirwa closed and Equity Bank Limited closed at RWF 296, RWF 380 and RWF 430 respectively (same as previous trading day) respectively.

South Africa: The All Share index ended 0.94% higher today to close at 52,240.06pts. Similarly, the benchmark Top-40 index rose 1.04% to close at 46303.15pts and Mining sector gained 1.47% to close at 25,118.41pts. Likewise Financial Top-15 index advanced by 1.36% to close at 16,973.90pts and Small Cap Index declined by 0.01% to close at 59,388.46pts. Cadiz Holdings advanced 4.76% to sell at ZAR1.10 a share, after investors exchanged 4,109,228 shares in 28 deals. Firstrand rose 4.06% after 5,935 deals traded 11,533,851 shares, boosting the share price to ZAR55.05. After investors bought and sold 780,400 shares in 16 deals, Seardel Investment Corporation (SRN) fell 5.51% to ZAR1.20 a share at market close. Delta EMD slid 5.26% after 304,294 shares were exchanged in 16 deals, sending the share price down to ZAR4.50.

Tanzania: The Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSEI) shred off 0.07% to close at 2,605.04pts and market capitalisation recorded at TZS 22.89bn. Likewise, the DSE TSI decreased by 1.13% to close at 4,799.20pts. Today, DSE recorded a total volume were recorded at 1,956,911 shares as Total turnover closed at TZS 1,55bn. Africa Barrick Gold was the highest gainer of the day shoving up by 2.49 percent to close at TZS 6,580.00. National Microfinance Bank declined by 6.06 percent to close the day at TZS 3,720 to be the highest loser of the day. Total volumes were recorded at 1,956,911 shares as Total turnover closed at TZS 1,55bn.

Tunisia: The Tunis Stock Exchange benchmark index (TUNINDEX) gained 19.18pts (0.36%) to close at 5,380.29pts with the market capitalization at TND 18.18bn. Likewise the Tunis top-20 capitalised index also gained 0.40% to close at 2,298.94pts. Today’s turnover amounted to TND2.426mn, while traded volume 372,763 shares sealed in 62 listed companies. The market sentiment was positive today, as the market breadth (advancer/decliners ratio) berthed at 1.48x with 20 advancers and 26 decliners. On the one hand, topping the price gainers list were TunisInvest, Electrostar and SOTETEL gained 5.68%, 3.90% and 3.00% to close at TND11.54, TND72.00 and TND2.75 respectively. On the other hand, topping the loser price list were Automobile Company, SNMVT and Servicom loss 3.23%, 2.49% and 2.02% to close at TND6.90, TND19.20 and TND13.11 respectively.

Uganda: The Uganda Securities Exchange All Share Index (USE ALSI) increase by 2.78% to close at 2,094.78pts with market capitalization recorded at UGX 28,634.32mn. 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 1,019,365 shares were traded representing a 111.88 percentage increase from yesterday’s 481,106 shares. Total turnover came to a close of UGX 37.38mn. The market sentiment was positive today, as the market breadth (advancer/decliners ratio) berthed at 7x with 7 advancers and 1 decliners. KCB Group (4.32% to close UGX 1,979), Equity Bank Limited (3.59% to close UGX 1,761.00) and East African Breweries Limited (2.60% to close at UGX 10,065) led the gainer chart. However, UCHUMI declined by 1.69% to close at UGX349.

Zimbabwe: The Industrial index lost a further 0.62pts (0.38%) to close at 162.62pts in thin trading. with total market capitalization of US$4.26billion. Today’s total volume and total turnover were recorded at 1.7mn (27 trades) and US$271,045 respectively. DELTA went down by 1.10 cents to close at 108.90 cents and ZIMPLOW lost a cent trade at 7.50 cents. OK ZIMBABWE slipped 0.20 cents to close at 13 cents and RTG eased 0.10 cents to close at 1.50 cents. OLD MUTUAL led the movers as it recovered 2 cents to trade at 237 cents, AFRICAN SUN added 0.30 cents to close at 1.80 cents and MEDTECH doubled to 0.04 cents. The Mining index closed lower at 54.29 points after dropping 0.41 points (0.75%) following a lower offer in FALGOLD at 0.50 cents.