Botswana Market Watch | May 21st 2015: Botswana equity market continues the positive trend

Gaborone, Botswana (Capital Markets in Africa):- The Botswana domestic composite index continued to head northwards, gaining 0.1% to extend its year-to-date growth by 10.02%. However, the foreign composite index remained flat to close at 1,569 points and year-to-date return is still in the red, reflecting the depressed international commodity market. The equity market capitalization was recorded at BWP 381.285 billion losing BWP 45 million compared to yesterday’s market cap.

The market activity was thin today compared to previous trading day; the total volume and total turnover were recorded at 2.059 million and BWP 15.330 million respectively.  BOTSWANA INSURANCE HOLDINGS LIMITED GROUP (BIHL) recorded the highest turnover at BWP 8.983 million and First National Bank Botswana recorded the highest traded volume of 1.140 million. BARCLAY BANK Botswana, FIRST NATIONAL BANK, Botswana, and CHOPPIES recorded turnover of BWP 4.368 million, BWP 4.389 million, BWP 264,468, and BWP 96,023 respectively. There were no trading activities on all the ETF stocks at end of today’s trading sessions.

From the mover perspective, the insurance giant BIHL, reached a new 52 week high of BWP 13.15 after trading the most shares in today’s session by gaining 0.4 percent which brings the year-to-date growth to 14.20 percent. In the same positive mood, CHOPPIES moved to BWP 4.15 (with gain of BWP 0.01), a day after successfully placing 277.4 million shares at an offer price of  ZAR 4.90 per share on its secondary listing on the JSE. The proceeds from the JSE secondary listing are expected to fund the retail giant expansion drive into existing and new market. Likewise, the BARCLAY BANK Botswana gained 0.5 percent to close at BWP 4.10. However, SECHABA gave up BWP 0.50 to close the day at BWP 28.50.

On the currency market, the Botswana Pula lost traction against the South Africa rand, but gained against other major trading currencies. On a year-to-date, the local unit is up 7% against the euro, but is 3% weaker against the US dollar.