Oxstones Investment Club™By Staff Reporter | June 10, 2013
The Ai40 Index continues to see-saw: after last week’s slight gain, the Index lost 1.05 points to reach a value of 113.92, down 0.91% from last week’s value of 114.97.
In African market news, Zimbabwe’s stock exchange, whose main industrial index has jumped 38% this year, has announced plans to sell shares through an IPO by the end of 2013, according to Zimbabwe’s Securities Exchange Commission.
In US markets, better-than-expected jobs numbers saw all three major indexes close in positive territory, rounding out a positive week after two straight weeks of loss. The Dow and S&P 500 gained 0.9% and 0.8% respectively for the week, while the Nasdaq jumped 0.4%. This leaves the Dow and S&P 500 just off 2% from reaching the record highs hit in May.
Friday’s close saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average gain 207.5 points, or 1.38%, to reach a value of 15,248.12. The Nasdaq gained 45.17 points to reach 3,469.22, up 1.32%, while the S&P 500 gained 20.82 points, or 1.28%, to reach a value of 1,643.38.
Gainers
Nigeria and Morocco were the big winners this week, with the West African nation taking the top three spots. Building materials giant Dangote topped the list with a gain of 9.7% to reach a price of US $1.34. Stanbic IBTC Bank trailed in second place with an increase of 6.8%, while Zenith Bank was even farther behind with a slight gain of 2.4%. A rally in the Nigerian Stock Market last week has analysts predicting a revival of public offers; the NSE hit its 2008 peak on Wednesday and advanced to N12.641 trillion on Friday.
Banque Marocaine du Commerce took up fourth position this week with a 2.0% gain to reach $23.66. Another building materials firm in the top five, Lafarge, wasn’t far behind with a 1.8% increase. The company closed on a price of $5.67.
Losers
Egypt and South Africa were clearly on the losing side this week, with two companies apiece making the list. Having made its appearance on last week’s winners list, AngloGold Ashanti certainly won’t be happy to have lost 7.4% for the week. Last week, AngloGold Ashanti terminated its Mafulira project in Tanzania, a joint partnership with Bezant Resources. MTN Group lost 7.1% for the week.
Two of Egypt’s biggest firms, Commercial International Bank and Telecom Egypt, saw their share prices dip 7.2% and 8.4% to reach $4.88 and $1.78 respectively. This week’s losers’ list was rounded out by Togo’s Ecobank, which lost 7.8% to reach a value of $0.12.
For more on the Ai40 Index, please visit the Africa investor website at www.africainvestor.com.
Tags: Africa, AngloGold Ashanti, Commercial International Bank, Dangote Group, Dangote Stanbic, Ecobank, frontier markets, IBTC Bank, morocco, Nigeria’s Stanbic, Telecom Egypt, zenith bank, Zimbabwe