African Stock Market Performance at the end of April, 2015

African stock market performance across the region has remained fairly buoyant in 2015 (i.e. at the end of April 2015) for local investors. The exceptions were Mauritius (depreciated by 5.7%), Zimbabwe (lost 4.0%), Egypt (declined by 2.8%) and Zambia (down by 0.5%). It ended, however, in the negative region for Forex adjusted returns (in US dollar)due to the depreciation of most African currencies against the US dollar during the period under review. This depreciation is attributed to a fall in commodity prices and the end of a five-year Quantitative Easing stimulus programme by US Federal Reserve Bank.  The FTSE ASEA Pan Africa Index and the S&P All Africa Index for instance, both went down by 5.1% and 3.6% respectively. On the one hand,  the best performing market year-to-date for foreign investors is Malawi equity market with a return of 13.7% (measured by Malawi Stock Exchange All Share Index return) out of which about 6.0% is due to the strengthening of Malawian kwacha against the US dollar. Likewise, the South African equity market (measured as FTSE/JSE All Share index return) emerges as the top performer year-to-date for South African investors yielding 9.38%. At the same time, the Nigerian equity market (measured as the All Share index return) is the champion for Nigerian investors in the month of April yielding 9.3% and runner-up for foreign investors returning 9.5% (stable Nigerian Naira, due to peaceful general elections and overall positive expectations). On the other hand, the top two worst performing market year-to-date for foreign investors is the Zambian equity market and Ghanaian equity market which both under performed by 16.2% and 16.0% respectively. The Ghanaian Cedi and Zambian Kwacha have also both depreciated by 19.35% and 16.35% respectively. For local investors, the top three losers are Mauritius equity market (declined 5.7%), Zimbabwe equity market (measured by Zimbabwe industrial index, depreciated by 4.0%) and Egyptian equity market (measured by EGX 30 index, loss 2.6%). Looking at the April dollar return, the top worst losers were Egypt, Ugandan and Tanzania giving up 5.0%, 4.6% and 3.8% respectively. Although, the Tanzania equity appreciated by 4.0% in local return, the Tanzania depreciation recorded at 8.04% (in April) pulled the return into negative territory for foreign investors. Note:

• The S&P All Africa index is a comprehensive benchmark for the African market, covering companies listed in 13 countries: Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe plus companies listed in developed markets that derive the majority of their revenue from the African continent.
• The FTSE ASEA Pan Africa Index Series represents the performance of eligible securities listed on ASEA (African Securities Exchanges Association) member exchanges. It is a free float market capitalisation weighted index series constructed from securities domiciled in the almost eighteen countries.

Compiled by Omotolani Ketiku