Mauritius Market Watch | May 18th 2015: Mauritius equity closed in negative

Port Louis, Mauritius (Capital Markets in Africa):-Stock Exchange of Mauritius indices closed in negative territory with the Semdex and SEM-10 losing 0.03 percent and 0.10 percent to reach 1,975.46 points and 375.47 points respectively. The market capitalization was recorded at MUR 219.714 billion.

Looking at the market activity, overall market turnover amounted to MUR 90.0 million, geared towards CIEL Limited, Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) Group, Mauritius Development Trust Co, Limited (MDIT) and Lux Island Resorts Limited which altogether accounted for 73 percent of total market turnover.

CIEL Limited witnessed a cross of 3.0 million shares at MUR 6.90 before finally concluding at higher at MUR 6.94 (about +0.6 percent).  MDIT traded flat at MUR 5.10 at which level it saw a cross of 3.0 million shares traded. While MCB Group shed off its intra-day high of MUR 207.00 to close the day at MUR 206.25 (-0.2 percent).

Likewise, SBM Holdings tumbled by 1.0 percent to MUR 0.95 (-1.0 percent) on 6.5 million shares exchanged. CIM Financial Services reached MUR 9.90, gaining 1.0 percent on 14,600 shares. Mauritius Union Assurance lost 0.3 percent to conclude at MUR 79.75 on 2,800 shares. Only mover on the commerce counter was Vivo Energy which lost 0.8 percent to MUR 131.00 on 5,000 shares.

At the level of industrials, Mauritius Oil Refinery Limited rose by 1.1 percent to conclude at MUR 27.90 and witnessed 26,000 shares exchanged.  As for the hotel stocks, New Mauritius Hotel finished unchanged at MUR 63.00 while Sun Resorts Limited opened on a cross of 89,800 and closed unchanged at MUR 42.50.  LUX Island Resorts, in contrast, went up by 0.8 percent to conclude at MUR 61.00 on two significant trades of 112,200 shares and 50,000. Total volume traded amounted to 192.4k shares.  Among investment companies top performer was Terra which was up by 1.7 percent on a single trade of 5,000 shares. Rogers went up by 0.3 percent to MUR 30.60 on 6,200 shares.

On the Development & Enterprise Market (DEM), the index was up by 0.1 percent to 203.15 points. Market turnover amounted to Rs7.4m, driven by Ciel textile which accounted for 87.6 percent of total value traded.