[2007-11-13]  Investors Profit Galore
SHAREHOLDERS of British American Tobacco, New Vision, Development Finance Company and Uganda Clays earned at least Shs50 more on each of their shares invested in the four companies, last week.

Each share in tobacco leaf exporters British American Tobacco Uganda (Batu) gained Shs90 more in less than 7 days as the value increased to Shs420 from Shs330.


If one owned 1000 shares amounting to Shs330, 000 in Batu on November 1st, by Thursday the wealth had jumped to Shs420, 000, up by Shs90, 000.

Shareholders of New Vision Limited (NVL), Development Finance Company of Uganda (Dfcu), and Uganda Clays Limited (UCL) earned Shs50 each by close of the week.

"Speculative trading on the Batu counter pushed the share price to Shs420, resulting in a 27.2 per cent gain up from last weeks close," Mr Grace Ssemakula, an investment analyst at African Alliance, said.

WEALTHY: Dfcu board of directors address the 42 annual general meeting. Dfcu shareholders were among the winners last week. File photo

"Batu's turnaround and the fact that they posted a profit in half year results also explains the increase in its share price. The company is also expected to double its exports which could result into better full year profit."

This year Batu returned to profitability posting Shs31 million in profit with a promise to double its exports to 19 million kilograms of tobacco leaf.

Batu also expects a return of Shs101 billon on the exports, up from Shs50.7 billion last year. More than 285,000 shares were traded at the counter during the week and more are expected to be exchanged.

New Vision continued its upward spiral, hitting a new all time high Shs805, up from Shs755 the previous week. Over 3.7 million shares exchanged hands at its counter bringing the companies market capitalisation to 41 billion up from over 38 billion, the previous week.

The media company's share price is also riding high on speculation of better returns from its expansion into the broadcast media.

Uganda Clays gained further to close at Shs5, 105 from Shs5, 055 on November 1st with only 1350 shares changing ownership at the counter. The brick making company closed the week with a market capital Shs25.5 billion, on the bourse.

Another top gainer was Dfcu whose share price started shooting up as supplies on the New Vision counter became scarce.

The company's share price opened at Shs485 and also gained by Shs50 to close at Shs535 on Thursday, trading more than 93,000 shares. Broda Uganda (BOBU) posted an active trade of a petty 200 shares. BOBU's share price stagnated at Shs1935 at which it opened, from the previous week.

The cross listed companies: namely Kenya Airways and Jubilee Holdings Limited except East African Breweries Limited (EABL), also posted good results as opposed to the past few weeks. Kenya Airways registered a 4.1 per cent increase to Shs1,615 from Shs1,551 but their counters remain dormant with no shares traded.



Source: Copyright © 2007 The Monitor.