Market ends week slightly up

The local stock market was marked by a slight growth of indices during the week. The SEM-ASI and the SEMTRI-ASI moved up by 0.14% at the end of the days under review (20 - 27 March 2017).

The Total Return Index, SEMTRI ended the session of Monday 27 March 2017 at 6,718.93 points, gaining 0.17% in one week. The SEMDEX closed the same session at 1,923.73 points, growing by 3.29 points during the same period. The SEM-ASI and the SEMTRI-ASI closed Monday’s session at 1,913.35 points and 6,640.06 points respectively. The SEM-10 Index, which comprises the ten largest and most liquid stocks, closed at 369.61 points. The SEM sustainability index, SEMSI, ended the same day at 102.72 points. The total market capitalisation of the SEM-ASI constituents stood at Rs 357.12 billion at market close on Monday.

Total transactions amounted to Rs 192.5 million during the week. The top five trading securities were: MCB Group Ltd (MCBG), New Mauritius Hotels Ltd (NMHL), SBM Holdings Ltd (SBMH), Gamma-Civic Ltd (GCL) and Terra Mauricia Ltd (TERA). They were exchanged for a total value of Rs 53.9 million, Rs 43.9 million, Rs 35.7 million, Rs 5.2 million and Rs 4.8 million respectively. The shares of MCBG, NMHL, SBMH, GCL and TERA closed at Rs 224, Rs 21, Rs 7, Rs 25 and Rs 30 respectively on Monday 27 March 2017.

An analysis of the evolution of the prices of listed stocks indicates that out of the 64 stocks figuring on the Official List, 13 moved up during the week, 42 remained stable and 9 went down. The best performing stocks for the week were: CIEL Ltd (+3.74%), IBL Ltd (+1.97%), Mauritius Oil Refineries Ltd (+1.45%), Automatic Systems Ltd (+1.28%) and Lottotech Ltd (+1.05%). The worst performers were: Terra Mauricia Ltd (-1.64%), ENL Land Ltd (-1.18%), Lux Island Resorts Ltd (-0.86%), MCB Group Ltd (-0.44%) and Omnicane Ltd (-0.41%).

On the Development & Enterprise Market (DEM), at market close on Monday, the two indices, the DEMEX and the DEMTRI, closed at 209.21 points and 275.09 points respectively. Market capitalisation stood at Rs 46.68 billion. A total volume of 595,920 shares for a total value of Rs 18.7 million has been traded during the week. The ten best performers in terms of annualised return since listing are: Margarine Industries Ltd, United Bus Service Ltd, Associated Commercial Ltd, ABC Motors Ltd, Swan Life Ltd, Phoenix Investment Company Ltd, Livestock Feed Ltd (O), Les Moulins de la Concorde Ltd, Morning Light Ltd and The Bee Equity Partners Ltd. The total return varies from 19.03% to 32.72%.

On the international front, financial markets ended the week on a negative note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ went down 1.52% and 1.22% respectively during the week. In Europe, Germany DAX, London FTSE-100 and France CAC-40 registered a loss of 0.26%, 1.19% and 0.17% respectively during the same time frame.

The following data highlights the ten best performing stocks in terms of annualised total returns since their listing on the stock exchange.