Nigeria, Zimbabwe post double-digit gains

Nigeria’s All Share Index surged 13.02% in May, making it the month’s top performer among the 11 markets covered in our basket of African indices. Year to date to the end of May, the All Share was up 34.6%.

Cadbury Nigeria has helped fuel the All Share’s exceptional performance. The company reported a profit of 185% after tax for the first quarter to March 31, 2013 and its shares rose 91.34% from January to May 2013, surging 45% in the third week of May alone. United Bank for Africa and PZ Cussons have also been among the bourse’s top performers while Bloomberg’s NSE Banking Index, which tracks Nigeria’s 10 biggest banks by market value, had gained 34% for the year to early June, compared with a 0.5% drop in the MSCI EM Banks Index.

Elsewhere on the continent, Zimbabwe’s Industrials Index gained 12.18% for the month and was up 39.61% year to date, making it the second-best performer after Ghana’s GSE Composite Index, which continued its strong upward momentum, adding 4.64% in May to leave it up 57.06% year to date.

Kenya’s NSE 20 gained 5.07% for the month reversing a 1.97% decline in April and pushing its year-to-date gain to 21.15%.

Zambia’s Lusaka All Share gained 3.13% in May and was up 18.41% for the year.

Egypt’s EGX 30 had its most positive month so far this year, rising 4.66% and making up for some of the more than 9% loss sustained in February and March. Having been the best performer in 2012, the bourse is 0.43% down year to date.

Botswana’s Gaborone Index saw its first decline for the year, slipping 0.72% for the month, but it is still up a healthy 15.47% year to date.

The SEMDEX in Mauritius has achieved steady gains in 2013, up 12.23% year to date with a 1.58% increase in May.

Namibia’s Overall Index ended a three-month losing streak to post a 3.7% gain for May but the bourse was still 3.15% in negative territory for the year.

Tunisia’s TUNINDEX gave up 1.13% in May, compounding losses in April and taking its year-to-date performance into negative territory with a 0.22% deficit.

After steady gains of 3% in March and April, Morocco’s CFG 25 shed 2.66% in May and was down 3.68% for the year. Copyright. HedgeNews Africa – June 2013.