African Market Watch: Tuesday, 3rd March 2015

Egypt: Indices of the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) closed on mixed performance today, as the market capitalization added EGP174.5mn backed by the buying spree of Local institutions for second day in row. The benchmark index EGX30 inched up by 0.20% or 19pts to end at 9475.27pts. The EGX70, which measures small and mid-cap stocks, went down 0.49% to 562.41pts and the broader index EGX100 lost 0.18% at 1124.5pts. Today’s turnover amounted to EGP551.6mn, while traded volume reached approx. 89.4mn shares sealed through 19.4 thousands transactions. Local traders were net buyers by EGP50 million, while foreign and Arab traders ended as net sellers by EGP32.8 million and EGP17.2 million respectively. Meanwhile, retail traders were net sellers; while institutions were net buyers particularly the local ones.

Ghana: At the closing bell, the benchmark Composite Index shredded 1.1pts to close at 2,177.90pts; this brings its year-to-date change to -3.68%. Whereas, the Financial Index strengthen by adding 3.79pts to close trading at 2,168.09pts and its year to date return stands at -3.37%. The market capitalization was recorded at GHS63.56mn at the close of trading session. Trading activity remained high with impressive volume and turnover being recorded 604,951 shares valued at GHS1.48mn were traded in sixteen equities. Standard Chartered Bank, Ghana Commercial Bank and SIC Insurance gained 4 pesewa to close at GHS20.20, 10 pesewa to close at GHS5.25 and a pesewa to close at GHS0.23 respectively. The top 5 most actively traded shares by volume were Ecobank Translation Incorporation, Enterprise Group, Ghana Commercial Bank, Bank Ghana Limited, and Transaction Solutions accounted for c.96% of the total volume.

Kenya: The NSE 20 Index shed off 25.19pts to close at 5,474.45pts whereas, the Nairobi All Share Index (NASI Index) declined by 1.63pts to close at 173.07pts with total market capitalization at KES 2,416.34bn. Uchumi went up by 8.37% today to close at KES 11.00. Flame Tree declined by 9.33% on previous price to close at KES 8.75 today.  The day’s volume of shares traded closed at 57.35mn shares and turnover closed at KES 1,470mn, an increase of 33.99% on previous day turnover. The top mover was Safaricom with a turnover of KES 468.81mn, representing 31.88% of the total market turnover. In addition, foreign buys stood at 53.82% of total turnover, while foreign sales stood at 66.31% of total turnover.

Mauritius: Both Indices closed in negative territory today. The Semdex lost 0.27% to 2,013.16pts and the Sem-10 was down by 0.34% to 379.73pts. Overall turnover on the market amounted to Rs 31.5m, mainly geared towards MCB Group, ENL Land (O) and PAD which accounted for 69.3% of total value traded. MCB Group touched Rs 203.00 on only 1,200 shares before rebounding to close at Rs 204.00 (-0.5%) on total volume of 69,400 shares exchanged. SBM Holdings lost 1.0% to Rs 1.00 with total volume amounting to 1.6m shares. However, the stock traded mostly at Rs 1.01 as highlighted by the VWAP which stood at Rs 1.0061. Among industrials, Gamma was the only decliner, losing 0.5% to Rs 37.80 on only 600 shares.

Morocco: Morocco’s benchmark stock index (Madex Index) fell by 0.12% to close at 10 456,55pts (year-to-date change of 8.69%) with total market capitalization at MAD 526.93bn. Market activities as measured by value closed at MAD 92.25mn. Moroccan most active share index (MADEX) closed at 8,590.55pts (declined by 0.12% compared to previous trading day). In term of sector, Electrical & Electronic Equipment and Mining gained 5.79%, and 1.394% respectively but Insurance and Beverage fell by 4.00% and 2.86%. Furthermore, FTSE CSE Morocco 15 Index gained 0.05% to close at 9,360.64pts and FTSE CSE Morocco All-Liquid Index gained 0.08% to close at 8,819.90pts.

Nigeria: The rebound in the Nigerian equity market further gained traction today, as the All Share Index (ASI) closed positive for the third consecutive trading session, climbing 110bps to close at 30,601.13pts. In the same manner, market capitalisation added N111.4bn to close at a 5-week high of N10.2tn. Gains in the market was driven by sustained rally in Consumer Goods and Banking equities — Nigerian Breweries (4.9%), Zenith Bank (5.0%) and Stanbic IBTC (5.0%). Market activities recovered today, as volume and value traded improved 94.8% and 64.5% to close at 510.1m units and N4.9bn respectively. Furthermore, all sectors indices closed positive today, with the Consumer Goods sector led gains with an appreciation of 2.2% attributable to gains recorded in Nigerian Breweries (4.9%), Unilever (1.2%) and Champion (4.0%). In addition, the Banking Index trailed, as it gained 1.8% against the backdrop of advances in Zenith (5.0%), Stanbic (5.0%) and ETI (2.2%). The Industrial Goods and Insurance indices also advanced 0.7% and 0.2% a piece. However, the Oil & Gas index closed flat.

Rwanda: The RSE ALSI and RSE RSI remained constant to close at 137.33 and 234.63 respectively. Total volume stood at 12,100 shares while total turnover stood at RWF 3.67mn.

South Africa: The JSE All Shares closed 0.34% higher today, overcoming an 2.75% loss in gold mining shares and a 0.28% fall in financials. Similarly, the JSE top 40 companies gained 0.43% to close at 46976.08 and JSE Industrial top 25 companies gained 0.74% to close at 66,478.15pts. The top mover upwards today was Eqstra Holdings (EQS) whose shares rose 17.79% to reach R3.84 a share, after 425 deals exchanged 3,052,603 shares. Central Rand Gold (CRD) gained 15.66% after investors traded 20,945 shares in 5 deals, boosting the share price to R3.25. The top loser for today was Evraz Highveld Steel (EHS), which fell 14.50% to R2.30 after 2 deals sold 9,780 shares. Losing 9.09% was South Ocean Holdings (SOH) whose shares slid to R1 after 4 deals traded a total of 41,500 shares.

Tanzania: The Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSEI) gained 7.77pts (0.29%) to close at 2,702.60pts, whereas the DSE TSI declined 1.09pts (1.20%) to close at 4,928.76pts. Today’s volume was recorded at 467,944 shares valued at TZS224.05mn. Similarly, the total market capitalization of the equity was recorded at TZS23, 678bn. National Microfinance Bank gained 7.08% to close at TZS5,140 and Kenya Airways gained 5.26% to close at TZS200. Likewise, Africa Barrick Gold gained 1.20% to close at TZS 7,580, while National Microfinance Bank shed off 0.23 percent to close at TZS 4,290. In addition, CRBD Bank is among the top mover with volume of 462,236 shares and its price closed at TZS400.00 remains unchanged to previous day price.

Uganda: The Uganda Securities Exchange All Share Index (USE ALSI) gained 0.04% to close at 2,033.67 whereas the Ugandan Stock Exchange Local Share Index (USE LSI) declined by 0.04% to close the day at 323.51. Today’s total volume was recorded at 5.75mn shares and total turnover was recorded at UGX 1.32bn.

Zambia: The Lusaka Stock Exchange All Share Index closed at 6,148.98 down by 0.01% in comparison to the previous close of 6149.86. A price change was recorded in FQMZ-(K0.09). Trading was also recorded in AELZ, LAFARGE, PUMA, ZANACO and SCZ. A total of 5,720 shares were traded in 9 trades resulting in a total turnover of K27, 631.The market capitalization was recorded at K65.566bn, including Shoprite Holdings Plc, and K31.327bn excluding Shoprite Holdings Plc.

Zimbabwe: The Industrial index lost 0.41 points (0.25%) to 166.90 points. OK ZIMBABWE dropped half a cent to 13.5 cents while BARCLAYS shed 0.25 cents to 4.25 cents. MASH and ZPI put off 0.10 cents each to settle at 2.30 cents and 1.10 cents respectively. On the gainers, UNIFREIGHT added a cent to 3 cents, while ZIMPAPERS traded 0.30 cents higher at a cent. The Mining index was unchanged at 54.58 points.

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