Oxstones Investment Club™http://www.ainewswire.com/?p=1260
By Staff Reporter | May 20, 2013
The Ai40 Index took a slight dip this week. It lost 0.85 points, or 0.72%, to reach 116.79 – down from last week’s 117.64. According to Databank’s quarterly market research, the Ghana Stock Exchange is the best performing market in Africa in terms of returns to investors for the first quarter of this year. With returns of over 45%, it beat out South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria.
US markets fared somewhat better than the Index, climbing for their fourth straight week as the US economy continues to inspire confidence in investors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq all closed higher on Friday, with the Dow and S&P 500 finishing at record levels. For the week, the S&P 500 gained 2%, the Dow jumped 1.5% and the Nasdaq increased by 1.7%.
Friday’s close saw the Dow reach 15,354.40; a jump of 121.18, or 0.80%, while the Nasdaq gained 33.73 points, or 0.97%, to reach 3,498.97. The S&P gained 17 points, 1.03%, to close at a value of 1,667.47.
Gainers
Once again, banks proved to be a reliable sector as three of the top gainers for the week came from that sector. Togo’s Ecobank continued a good performance for the year so far by gaining another 8.8%. Nigeria’s Stanbic IBTC Bank increased its price by 4.8% to reach US$0.10, and Kenya’s Equity Bank jumped 4.4% to reach a value of $0.42.
East African Breweries Ltd reached the top this week, recording a healthy 14.8% increase. The company has been Kenya’s best performing stock over the past month. However, analysts are saying that there is no explanation for this performance and that the rally is likely to end soon.
Rounding out the list is Dangote Cement, which gained a robust 4.0%. The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed Friday on an impressive note as the market capitalisation rose by N162 billion. Dangote Cement recorded the highest gain of N6.89 to close at N187 per share.
Losers
Many of this year’s usual suspects once more made an appearance on the Index’s list of losers this week. South African mining giants AngloGold Ashanti and Anglo Platinum are familiar faces here; this week they lost 6.8% and a massive 15.1% apiece. Anglo Platinum has been battling labour unrest for months, but reported Friday that employees turned up for work as usual, despite the threat of wildcat strikes.
Rounding off the list, FirstBank Nigeria lost 7.4% while Moroccan real estate and construction companies Douja Prom Addoha and Lafarge lost 9.0% and 10.2% respectively.
For more on the Ai40 Index, please visit the Africa investor website at www.africainvestor.com.
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