Botswana Market Watch | June 1st 2015: Botswana equity market starts June with positive trend.

Gaborone, Botswana (Capital Markets in Africa):- The Botswana domestic composite index starts the week on a positive trend, adding 0.03 percent to extend its year-to-date growth by 10.59 percent. However, the foreign composite index remained flat to close at 1,569 points and year-to-date return is still in the red. The equity market capitalization gained BWP 608 million to end the day at BWP 382,197.

From the market activity viewpoint, the markets started the start day of the week with a snail’s pace as only 681,423 shares worth of just BWP 1.64 million was traded exchanging 9 securities of the 34 listed securities. RDC Properties Botswana recorded the highest volume at 605,724 million accounted for almost 89 percent and largest market turnover of BWP 1.393 accounted for nearly 88 percent of the total market turnover.

Furthermore, the property outfit which its portfolio is mainly on hospitality has announced its intentions to enter the residential sector to diversify their portfolio. The property industry had faced pressures on their rental income growth year-to-year as there has been emergent of new malls in Gaborone, posing upward pressure on their vacancy levels especially on the office sector. On the gainers front, Botswana Insurance Holding Limited (BIHL) closed at a new 12 month high of BWP 13.42 after gaining BWP 0.02. The insurance giant realized a 6% increase in net premiums for their year end results despite the increased competition within the insurance space. BIHL P/E ratio still remain lower relative to its peers. On the ETFs, Newgold which tracks the price of bullion gold lost BWP 0.02 to trade at BWP 112.78 per unit.

On the currency market, the Botswana Pula lost ground against the US Dollar and Euro but recouped some ground relative to the South African Rand and British Pound.