Company results fail to excite markets

Brian Benza
Staff Writer | Tuesday April 13, 2010 00:00

However, the flurry of good company results pouring in the past few weeks failed to excite the market that has remained lukewarm with the mainstream DCI pushing up by a 3.23 percent on a year-to-date basis while the FCI weakened by 0.7 percent.

Although some impressive results have been registered by large caps such as Barclays, FNBB, Sefcash, G4S and BIHL, there has not been a corresponding rise in share prices in the first quarter of the year, particularly for the large capitalised stocks.

'We are observing some profit- taking, especially from retail investors in some selected stocks such as Barclays, FNBB, Sechaba and BIHL,' says a market report by Motswedi Securities.

'It is interesting to note that some mid-capitalised stocks such as Engen, FSG, G4S, PrimeTime, RDCP and Turnstar have made some impressive gains on a year-to-date basis and are already trading at their 52-week highs.'

For the week, the DCI lost 0.14 percent to close at 7,476.16 points, dragged by losses in heavyweight stocks such as BIHL, Barclays, Sechaba and Letshego.

On the other hand, the Foreign Companies Index (FCI) edged 0.01 percent to 1,408.27 points following a gain in Discovery Metals.

On a year-to-date basis, the FCI is down by 0.7 percent. Metal prices on international markets are currently on a recovery path with tentative gains being observed in most base metals such as copper and nickel. As a result, most mining stocks such as African Copper and Discovery Metals are set to benefit from the upward movements in international metal prices.

 Meanwhile, a total of 626,762 shares worth P3,259,016 exchanged hands on the local bourse during the holiday-shortened week, down from 2,589,279 shares worth P7,820,363 traded the previous week.

For the week, security services provider G4S was the biggest mover, up 8.7 percent to a 52-week high of 2,500thebe. Discovery Metals gained by a similar margin to an all-time high of 500thebe, while financial giant FNBB added 1.2 percent to 259thebe. Other gains were observed in Turnstar that went up 0.6 percent to a 52-week high of 171thebe, while Sefalana and FSG edged 0.5 percent apiece to 392thebe and 214thebe respectively.

On the downside, Imara was the biggest loser, down 16.7 percent to 500thebe, BIHL shed 2.7 percent to 1,020, while Aviva lost 2.0 percent to 50thebe.

Other losses were in Barclays, Sechaba and Letshego.