[2007-11-27]  Bears Descend On BSE
The bearish pattern that has characterised the stock market lately continued last week as the mainstream DCI lost another 0.77 percent to close the week near 9,000 points.

The main index was once again pulled down by blue chip commercial banks Barclays and Stanchart, whose prices have been realigning to levels supported by their fundamentals.


Stanchart was the biggest loser of the week, shedding 6.1 percent, while Barclays lost 0.56 percent.

The DCI, which closed the week at 9,014 points, has lost about 8 percent from the September 28 level of 9,769 points.

On the other hand, the Foreign Companies Index lost by an even wider margin, shedding 4.65 percent largely due to losses in the dominating mining counters on the board.

Profit taking in mining companies A-Cap, AF Copper and Anglo saw the counters losing 8.12 percent, 2.08 percent and 7.28 percent respectively.

CIC Energy also weakened by a considerable margin of 5.66 percent in the week under review.

However, despite the losses registered on both indices, there were a few counters that posted gains in the period with Discovery basking in the news of more copper and nickel discoveries in the north the biggest gainer of the week, going up 6.52 percent.

Security concern G4S was in a second consecutive positive run, adding 3.85 percent, while Furnmart and Sefcash also strengthened by 2.08 percent and 4.96 percent respectively.

While the performance of the market has been nothing to smile about, the coming of another counter on the bourse will certainly lift investors' spirits.

Prime Time Holdings announced last week that they will list on the BSE main board on December 20, 2007 to become the 30th counter on the bourse.

This follows the opening of the initial public offer (IPO) last week in which over 6 million are up for the taking by the public at a price of P1.25 percent share.

The company, whose portfolio embraces retail property and office and industrial property, officially opened its IPO on Tuesday and it will run until December 7, 2007.

Although Prime Time is a relatively new name specifically crafted for the placement. The main hold of the company is Time Projects, a property firm that has been operating in Botswana for over 21 years and owns at least 13 properties in various wholly owned subsidiary companies.

Meanwhile, Stockbrokers Botswana says in a report that KYS Investment Limited has issued a circular to its shareholders regarding an offer by Botswana Insurance Fund Management Limited (Bifm) and Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (MVA Fund) to purchase the issued ordinary shares held by shareholders other than the two.

BIFM and MVA Fund, which currently hold 58.3 percent and 16.6 percent respectively, want to buy the shares at a price of P0.64 per ordinary share.

"The offer will be considered valid if the shareholders accept the offer in respect of all the shares they hold, otherwise partial acceptance will be treated as invalid," said the report.

The offer opened last week and will close on December 7, 2007.


Source: Copyright © 2007 Mmegi/The Reporter.