African Market Watch: Wed, 25th February 2015

Egypt: The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) indices have plummeted on Wednesday, as the market capitalization lost around EGP6.4bn.  Today, EGX indices have pulled down on the back of strong selling pressures from both local institutions and Arab retail traders. The benchmark EGX30 has slipped 1.48% or 142 pts to 9469.08pts. The benchmark has major support zone at level of 9433 pts on the short-term and upon crossing it the index will re-test levels of 9780 and 9850.  The EGX70, which measures small and mid-cap stocks, went down 1.17% to 562.95 pts and the broader index lost 1.10% at 1124.06 pts. Whereas the turnover amounted to EGP1.05bn, while traded volume reached 96.1mn shares sealed through 18.1 thousands transactions. Foreign traders were net buyers by EGP21.6 million, while Locals and Arabs traders ended as net sellers by EGP12.5mn and EGP9.1mn respectively. Meanwhile, retail traders, particularly Arabs, were net sellers, while institutions were net buyers except the local ones.

Ghana: Trading activity at the mid-week session was brisk with improved volume and turnover. The indices sustained their positive run with gains in four equities (Ecobank Ghana, CAL Bank, PBC and UT Bank) helping them defies declines in four others (SIC Insurance, Unilever, Total Petroleum and Ecobank Translational Incorporation). The benchmark Composite Index closed at 2,168.33pts; this represents a climb of 4.36pts and brings it year-to-year change to -4.10%. The Financial Index also rose by 5.26pts to close trading at 2,149.54pts. At the close of trading sixteen equities had their shares being traded in with total volume of 394,358 shares with valued at GHC 370,825.

Kenya: The NSE 20 Index went up 12.55 points to close at 5,467.78, but the Nairobi All Share Index (NASI Index) gained 0.69 points to close at 177.51. The top gainer today was Pan Africa Insurance which increased by 4.67% to close at KES 112.00. The day’s loser was Kakuzi which shaved off 4.35%  to close at KES 330.00. Volume of shares traded today was recorded at 55.58mn shares a massive increase of 190.41% from previous trading. Likewise the turnover was recorded at KES 1,200mn which was also a big jump upwards of 108.90%. Top mover was Safaricom with a turnover of KES 538mn, representing 44.86% of the day’s total market turnover. Foreign buys stood at 60.75 percent of total turnover, while foreign sales stood at 65.08 percent of total turnover

Malawi: Malawi All Share Index remains unchanged at closing of trading today with total market capitalization of US$17,181mn and total turnover at US$10,340.

Mauritius: Both Indices closed today’s session in positive territory. The Semdex gained 0.09% to 2017.05 points and the Sem-10 rose by 0.11% to 379.70 points. Overall turnover on the market amounted to Rs 63.0m, mainly geared towards MCBG, Terra and SBMH which accounted for 82.1% of total value traded. MCB Group reached a high of Rs 207.00 before closing at Rs 206.50 (+0.24%). The stock saw several crosses among which two crosses of 53.8k and 50.0k at Rs 206.25 on a total volume of 180.9k shares exchanged. SBM Holdings traded between low of Rs 1.00 and high of Rs 1.01 before closing at Rs 1.00 (-1.0%). The stock saw 4.1m shares traded mostly at Rs 1.00.  Swan was the only mover on the insurance counter, losing 0.2% to Rs 324.00 on 3.5k shares. ENL commercial was the only decliner on the commerce counter, declining by 1.7% to Rs 23.40 on only 300 shares.

Morocco: Morocco’s benchmark stock index (Madex Index) rose 0.73% and closed at 10 481,95pts with total market capitalization at MAD 528bn. Market activities as measured by value closed at MAD 558mn. Moroccan most active share index (MADEX) closed at 8,601.20pts (gained 0.80% compared to previous trading day). Likewise all major sector indices closed on a positive side with the Insurance, mining and real estate gained 3.67%, 2.75% and 1.44% respectively but Materials, Software and Computer fell by 2.54%. Furthermore, both FTSE CSE Morocco 15 Index and FTSE CSE Morocco All-Liquid Index ended on green with increase of 0.88% and 0.78% respectively.

Namibia: The Namibian Overall index gained 6.7pts to closed at 1179.816pts (0.53% increase compared to previous trading day values) whereas the NSE local index fell by 2.95pts and closed at 405.233pts. 1179.816

Nigeria: The NSE ASI traded marginally up today to sustain 8 consecutive days of gains after closing at 30,195.56 (17bps). Also, the total volume and value traded on the floor of the Nigerian bourse rose 0.3% and 0.2 % to close at 369.9m units and N4.5tn respectively. All sectors traded negative at the close of trading save for Banking sector index which advanced by 1.2% with enhanced gains in Guaranty Trust Bank (2.2%), Union Bank of Nigeria (4.9%) and FBN Holdings (2.5%). Losses recorded in Forte Oil (3.1%) and Oando (4.0%) triggered a 0.93% decline in Oil & Gas sector index. Insurance, Consumer Goods and Industrial sector indices also shed 0.7%, 0.3% and 0.3% respectively.

Rwanda: The RSE ALSI declined by 0.18% to close at 137.33. The RSE RSI declined 0.97% to close at 234.63. Both counters declined today, with Bank of Kigali shedding off 0.34 percent to close at RWF 296.00 and Bralirwa shedding off 1.30 percent to close at RWF 380.00. Total volumes stood at 360,600 shares while total turnover stood at RWF 137.00mn.

Tanzania: The DSEI went down by 0.98% to close the day’s trading at 2,751.73pts, as the DSE TSI gained 0.10% to close at 4,967.76pts. The top gainer was Africa Barrick Gold whose price increased by 0.80% to close at TZS 7,520.00. Similarly, volume was recorded at 1.22m shares and total turnover was recorded at TZS 5.03bn.

Uganda: The USE ALSI dropped 0.57 percent to close at 2,084.27, as the USE LSI increased by 1.28 percent to close at 324.27. Development Finance Company gained 13.29 percent to close the day at UGX 810.00. Today’s total volume was recorded at 744,629 shares and total turnover was recorded at UGX 314.91mn.

Zambia: The Lusaka Stock Exchange All Share Index maintained the close of 6,149.86 points as no price movements were recorded today. Trading was recorded in ZANACO, SCZ, REIZ, LAFARGE, CEC and ATEL. A total of 607,005 shares were traded in 40 trades resulting in a total turnover of ZMK1.6m. The market capitalization was recorded at ZMK65bn, including Shoprite Holdings Plc, and ZMK31bn excluding Shoprite Holdings Plc.

Zimbabwe: The Industrial index was marginally lower by 0.03pts (0.02%) to close at 167.91pts. The cement maker PPC lost 5 cents to trade at 180 cents whilst Econet Wireless Limited and MEIKLES shed a cent each to close at 53 cents and 13 cents respectively. ARISTON and STAR AFRICA dropped 0.30 cents each to 0.70 cents and 1.50 cents in that order. However, the Mining index gained 4.10pts (8.71%) after BINDURA lower offer on 19 February 2015 was reversed as the counter traded at 4.50 cents.