The Domestic Companies Index (DCI) of the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) this past week continued on its downtrend for the sixth straight consecutive week. The local equities shed 0.18 percent this past week translating to 3.5 percent on a yearly basis.
The weekly capital markets figures shows that during the past week, about 35.7 million shares worth of P103.7 million exchanged hands at the local bourse. This reflects one of the biggest weekly turnovers achieved for the year thus far.
Financial analysts at Motswedi Securities said recently that the downtrend could be linked to some heavy weights that are going through a profit taking phase. Just last week, Pan African micro financer Letshego traded the most volumes on the counter. Letshego, which released its year-end financial results on Friday, was the major traded counter, exchanging about 85 percent of the total volumes.
In the troubled financial field, FNBB slid by a third of a percent, following the release of its interim results in which the bank registered a 11 percent y/y growth on its non-interest income. The South African headquartered bank also recorded a 15 percent decline in Profit after Tax (PAT) and a marginal growth in its loan book. Another top bank, Stanchart gave up 0.9 percent to close the week at 1080 thebe per share while Barclays Bank Botswana recently issued a statement confirming that its consolidated profits for 2015 will be lower than the previous years.
On Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), BSE data shows that NewGold surged by 1.4 percent to trade at 13 179thebe after closing the last week at 13 000 thebe. Available data shows that the performance of the Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) was better in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same quarter in 2014. The BSE’s market performance report for up to the period ended 10 April 2015 shows improvement in liquidity in ETFs, as indicated by turnover. The BSE market review for the period showed that BettaBeta ETF experienced significant inflows which generated a total turnover of P85.8 million in 2015. On the other hand, trades in NewGold ETF amounted to P25.8 million whereas the NewPlat ETF generated trades valued at P23.6 million. ETFs are popular for their high liquidity due to the presence of a market maker.
