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Friday 27th of February 2015
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Morning Africa |
Register and its all Free.
If you are tracking the NSE Do it via RICHLIVE and use Mozilla Firefox
as your Browser.
0930-1500 KENYA TIME
Normal Board - The Whole shebang
Prompt Board Next day settlement
Expert Board All you need re an Individual stock.
The Latest Daily PodCast can be found here on the Front Page of the site
http://www.rich.co.ke |
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Black hole as massive as 12 billion suns found, could change theories of how universe began Africa |
A giant black hole, as massive as 12 billion suns, has been found by
astronomers and seems to be growing far too fast.
The black hole is not the biggest that is known, but is far bigger
than scientist would expect to be at its age. It got to its huge size
875 million years after the big bang - which scientists wouldn't
expect to happen, since black holes grow as they age and eat other gas
and stars that surround them.
Scientists can only see it at that age - 12.8 billion years ago, and 6
per cent of the age of the current universe - because it is so far
away. They also can't look at it directly, because the power of its
gravity sucks everything including light into it - but the team that
found it saw it by spotting a quasar, an object that gets lit up as
it's heading into the black hole. In a paper reporting their finding,
published in Nature and reported in National Geographic, the
scientists behind the study say that the finding could change our
understanding of how black holes form. It is thought that black holes
begin when the first stars collapsed, about 100 million years after
the big bang, and that they swelled after that.
I am looking forward to being in London this year I really am.
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I Wonder LYRICS Kanye West Africa |
[Hook]
And I wonder if you know
What it means, what it means
And I wonder if you know
What it means to find your dreams
[Verse 1]
I've been waiting on this my whole life
These dreams be waking me up at night
You say I think I'm never wrong
You know what, maybe you're right, aight
[Verse 3]
And I'm back on my grind
A psychic read my lifeline
Told me in my lifetime
My name would help light up the Chicago skyline
And that's why I'm
Seven o'clock, that's primetime
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Isis murderer Mohammed Emwazi is Londoner on MI5's radar since 2009 Law & Politics |
As the world's media descended on the addresses where Emwazi was
raised - ranging from an £800,000 mansion block apartment in Maida
Vale to his last-known address on a gritty west London estate -
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jihadi-john-was-a-computer-programmer-known-to-mi5-for-at-least-four-years-10073607.html
The 26-year-old, who had moved to England at the age of six, first
came to the attention of MI5 in 2009. He was detained with two others
while travelling to Tanzania for a safari holiday. Intelligence
officers believed it was a cover for an attempt to join the al-Shabaab
terror group in Somalia. His week-long detention in Africa, apparently
on British orders, and questioning by an MI5 officer were revealed by
The Independent in 2010 - although he then identified himself by a
different name.
Putin said Kiev's decision of cutting gas supplies to Donbass " looks
like genocide"
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/europe/europe/2015-02/26/c_127518147.htm
"The speed of making and implementing decisions is much faster on the
Russian side and that obviously puts Russia at an advantage," she said
by phone on Feb. 24. "The pain can be inflicted faster than the remedy
can be administered."
Russia is damaging Ukraine's economy faster than the U.S. and its
European allies can provide support.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-26/putin-scores-victory-over-ukraine-allies-in-bond-market-collapse
That's the conclusion of investors, who have sent the price of
Ukrainian bonds to record lows even as the country awaits $17.5
billion of emergency loans from the International Monetary Fund. Its
currency, the hryvnia, has lost about a half of it value this month,
forcing the central bank to tighten capital controls to keep money
from fleeing the country.
As a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine pits Russia against its
Cold War-era foes, the conflict is also playing out in the trading
rooms of Wall Street banks and hedge funds. Investors trying to
anticipate the next move of rebels backed by Russian President
Vladimir Putin are also weighing the ability of the Kiev government's
allies to counter the Kremlin's economic maneuvers as Ukraine seeks to
restructure its $16 billion of foreign-currency debt.
"It is clear the country has a powerful neighbor intent on
destabilizing it, while the West simply doesn't care enough about
Ukraine to do anything with significant costs attached," Paul
McNamara, a money manager who helps oversee $6.3 billion of debt
including Russian bonds at GAM UK Ltd., said by phone from London on
Feb. 25. "I don't think Ukrainian bonds and the hryvnia are especially
cheap."
Conclusions
On the ground Putin has pounded Kiev. but the Financial Warfare that
the C21st Oil Warfare Specialist @BarackObama launched on him has been
brutal and just as ''red in tooth and claw''
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The rise of fascism is again the issue By John Pilger Law & Politics |
Fascism is preserved as history, as flickering footage of
goose-stepping blackshirts, their criminality terrible and clear. Yet
in the same liberal societies whose war-making elites urge us never to
forget, the accelerating danger of a modern kind of fascism is
suppressed; for it is their fascism.
Like the fascism of the 1930s and 1940s, big lies are delivered with
the precision of a metronome: thanks to an omnipresent, repetitive
media and its virulent censorship by omission.
Take the catastrophe in Libya. In 2011, Nato launched 9,700 "strike
sorties" against Libya, of which more than a third were aimed at
civilian targets. Uranium warheads were used; the cities of Misurata
and Sirte were carpet-bombed. The Red Cross identified mass graves,
and Unicef reported that "most [of the children killed] were under the
age of ten".
The public sodomising of the Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi with a
"rebel" bayonet.
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Fed's Bullard sees spring price rebound, summer rate hike: CNBC International Trade |
The Federal Reserve should make a change to its policy statement next
month that would allow it to monitor inflation readings through the
spring and then hike interest rates some time in the summer, a top Fed
official said on Thursday.
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said on CNBC the U.S. central
bank should drop the word "patient" from its statement at a March
17-18 meeting, in order "to provide optionality ... going forward."
"If we take it out, then we can move at any of the meetings during the
summer," he added. "If expected inflation goes back to more normal
levels then I'd have confidence that actual inflation would follow
behind. Through the spring here we'll have to see evidence of that."
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Currency Markets at a Glance WSJ World Currencies |
Euro 1.1211
Dollar Index 95.14 The dollar index eased 0.2 percent to 95.130 .DXY,
inching away from a one-month high of 95.357 set on Thursday. The
dollar index had rallied 1.1 percent on Thursday, bringing it close to
the more than 11-year high of 95.481 hit on Jan. 23.
Japan Yen 119.27
Swiss Franc 0.9503
Pound 1.5436
Aussie 0.7795
India Rupee 61.825
South Korea Won 1100.74
Brazil Real 2.9087
Egypt Pound 7.6310
South Africa Rand 11.5446
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12-JAN-2015 The euro/dollar exchange rate is headed to parity and even lower in 2015. World Currencies |
The euro/dollar exchange rate is headed to parity and even lower in
2015. I know Goldman Sachs has a parity call for euro/dollar in 2016,
but I think the unravelling will happen in 2015 and a lot more
quickly.
The economic blowback from the frozen conflict in Ukraine with Russia
has exacted a price, as well. Economics and geopolitics are more
intertwined than ever before. If European bond yields - they are at
record all-time lows - are the 'signal in the noise', then this means
Europe is in danger of a major 'death-spiral'.
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09-FEB-2015 King Dollar World Currencies |
ON Friday, the United States released its typically market-moving
non-farm payroll numbers. After interrogating the released data, I
realised that the US posted the largest three-month payroll gain going
back to 1997.
That was plain another era in 1997 and I looked up the music from that
year to better anchor that period in my mind. I discovered that Toni
Braxton's 'Unbreak my heart', Biggy's 'Hypnotise' and Elton John's
'Candle in the wind' - in remembrance of the late Princess of Wales,
Diana Frances - were the big hits that year.
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Ghana clinches three-year IMF funding deal worth $940 million Africa |
Africa Department division chief Joel Toujas-Bernate said the
short-term priority was to stabilise Ghana's economy.
"We are confident that the programme ... will enable the authorities
to achieve their objectives," he told Reuters.
"We see the prospects at somewhat of a lower level of growth than we
have seen in the last four of five years because indeed this period of
large spending through large public borrowing now will not be able to
continue," he said in an interview.
Conclusions
@JDMahama dialled up Madam @Lagarde at the @IMFNews
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Look at Ghana where the president @JDMahama claims he is looking for a 'home-grown' solution to a situation of his making and frankly there isn't one 2 JUNE 2014 Africa |
Ivory Coast is poised to raise $1 billion on Tuesday in a deal that
was widely seen as a test for African bond issuance after a recent
slide in oil prices led to a wobble in African debt.
http://blogs.wsj.com/frontiers/2015/02/24/ivory-coasts-1b-bond-sale-attracts-4b-in-orders/
The results were conclusive: Investors placed some $4 billion of
orders for Ivory Coast's bonds.
"It's a pretty positive signal that the market is absorbing that
[amount of bonds]," said Mahan Namin, a fund manager at London-based
Insparo Asset Management, which has $110 million invested in Africa.
The bonds will have an average maturity of 12 years, with three equal
annual repayments starting in 2026. The bond will yield 6.625%,
according to one of the banks working on the deal.
Diageo Plc, the maker of Guinness beer and Johnnie Walker whisky,
wants Africa to account for 20 percent of its sales after investing
more than $1 billion in the continent over the last five years, Chief
Executive Officer Ivan Menezes said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-27/diageo-s-ceo-menezes-sees-africa-rising-to-20-of-global-sales
The ambition to make the African operation "one of the pillars of the
next decade" and boost takings from the current share of 13 percent
will play out in growing nations such as Ethiopia, Menezes said at the
opening of an expanded brewery in Africa's second-most populous
country. He declined to say when he expected to reach the goal.
"Africa is hugely important for Diageo and Ethiopia is going to be one
of the cornerstone markets for us in the future," the CEO said in a
Feb. 25 interview with Bloomberg Africa Television at the Meta Abo
brewery in Sebeta. "I see Africa growing faster than the Diageo
average both in beer and in spirits, and the two go hand in hand."
The world's largest spirits maker is leaning more on Africa as North
America, its biggest and most profitable market, continues to
struggle. The London-based distiller manufactures in 16 African
countries and sells its brands in 40 on a continent that is expected
to have a fifth of the world's population by 2030. Diageo has invested
$119 million in Meta Abo since buying the brewery from Ethiopia's
government for $225 million three years ago.
"This is a very exciting market," Menezes said. "It's got good
demographics, very good economic growth and we've got good support
from the government."
Ethiopia, one of Africa's fastest-growing economies, is expected to
grow an average of 8.1 percent annually through 2019, the
International Monetary Fund said in October. The country's estimated
population of 94.1 million was increasing at 2.6 percent a year in
2013, according to the World Bank.
Sales of Guinness in Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, have rebounded
after Diageo tried to "premiumize" its operation last year at a time
when consumers were seeking cheaper drinks, Menezes said. The
ill-timed price increase resulted in a 9 percent drop in Nigerian
sales last year, and Diageo has since hired a new management team in
response.
"The corrections we made in Nigeria are working well and the last few
months we see growing momentum in that business," he said.
Diageo's investments in Ethiopia include the new bottling line at Meta
Abo, which is 14 miles (23 kilometers) southwest of the capital Addis
Ababa. The addition will triple its annual production capacity to 1.7
million hectoliters. It's also digging wells to bring drinking water
to thousands of residents.
Other brewers are eager to slake Ethiopia's growing thirst for beer.
Heineken NV, the Dutch company that bought two Ethiopian government
breweries in 2011 for $163 million, opened a 110 million-euro ($123
million) plant near Addis Ababa in January. BGI Ethiopia, a unit of
French drinks maker Groupe Castel, produces St George beer -- the
nation's top seller -- from a 93-year-old brewery in the capital.
"I see a market the size of Ethiopia having significant opportunities
for all the players to grow," Menezes said.
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BAT Kenya reports Full Year PBT +11.00% 2014 Earnings here share price -3.30% in 2015 Kenyan Economy |
Par Value: 10/-
Closing Price: 878.00
Total Shares Issued: 100000000.00
Market Capitalization: 87,800,000,000
EPS: 42.55
PE: 20.6345
Full Year Earnings through 31st December 2014 versus through December 2013
Full Year Gross Turnover 34.124b versus 31.916b +7.00%
Full Year net Revenue 21.032b versus 19.619b
Full Year Profit before Tax 6.095b versus 5.470b +11.00%
Full Year Profit after Tax 4.255b versus 3.724b
Full Year Earnings Per Share 42.55 versus 37.24
Final Dividend 39 shillings a share
Dividend Pay Out 42.50 shillings a share
Company Commentary
Gross Turnover increased by 7% driven by incremental contract
manufacturing volumes from the DRC.
Export Sales and improved performance in the domestic market
Cash generated from operations increased significantly by 31% to 6.6b
We continue to invest in the Nairobi hub
Conclusions
Strong Earnings and the pre-eminent dividend stock at the Nairobi
Securities Exchange
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KENGEN releases First Half PAT +106.42% 2014 Earnings here share price +3.39% in 2015 Kenyan Economy |
Par Value: 2.50/-
Closing Price: 10.65
Total Shares Issued: 2198361344.00
Market Capitalization: 23,412,548,314
EPS: 1.29
PE: 8.256
6 months through 31st December 2014 versus through 31st December 2013
Installed Capacity 1,575 versus 1,231 MW
Units sold 3,383 versus 3,098 GWh
First Half Total Revenue 12.183b versus 8.916b
First Half Electricity Revenue 11.659b versus 8.482b
First Half Operating Expenses [6.991b] versus [5.842b]
First Half Finance Costs [1.377b] versus [1.385b]
First Half Profit before Tax 3.790b versus 1.836b
First Half Profit After Tax 3.790b versus 1.836b +106.42%
First Half Earnings Per Share 2.24 versus 0.46 +386.95%
Revenue from electricity sales rose 37 percent to 11.659 billion
shillings for the six months to December, the firm said. Total revenue
rose to 12.18 billion shillings from 8.92 billion shillings.
KenGen, which is planning to raise cash for expansion and also to help
the company restructure its balance sheet, said its installed capacity
had risen to 1,575 megawatts from 1,231 MW.
The company will carry out a cash call to raise 30 billion shillings
($331.13 million), which the energy ministry said late last year could
be completed in the first quarter of this year.
Albert Mugo, KenGen's chief executive, said the plans for "the capital
restructuring are at an advanced stage," but gave no further details.
KenGen's expansion plans are part of a greater government push to
increase power production capacity by an extra 5,000 MW by 2017 from
about 1,664 MW now, to attract investment.
KenGen said earnings per share rose to 2.24 shillings from 0.46
shillings but would not pay an interim dividend. The firm did not pay
a dividend in the same period in 2013.
Conclusions
Stronger margins and some capacity expansion. the Capital Call needs
to get underway because its been a Drag for a while.
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Pan Africa insurance reports FY PAT 2014 Earnings here share price -6.666% in 2015 Kenyan Economy |
Par Value: 5/-
Closing Price: 112.00
Total Shares Issued: 96000000.00
Market Capitalization: 10,752,000,000
EPS: 9.07
PE: 12.348
Full Year Net Written premium 4.900770b versus 5.101827b
Full Year Investment Income 1.993175b versus 1.534084b
Full Year Fair Value Gains 648.386m versus 1.168709b
Full Year Other Operating income [including Property] 293.651m versus 685.054m
Full Year Total Other Revenue 2.984225b versus 3.440527b
Full Year Total Income 7.974995b versus 8.542354b
Full Year Total benefits claims and other expenses [6.825007b] versus
[7.027998b]
Full Year Profit before Tax 1.152598b versus 1.516444b
Full Year Profit after Tax 871.190m versus 1.250432b
Full Year Earnings Per Share 9.07 versus 13.05
From the accompanying commentary
Shareholders Funds +13% to 3.78b
Total Assets +16% to 24.6b
Pan Africa Life assurance limited Embedded Value increased by 35% Group EV +21%
''Property sales under performed due to a depressed market''
Recommending a bonus dividend of 1 new share for every two held
In lieu of a cash dividend
Conclusions
They had warned but that Warning came 18-FEB-2015 which is very late in the day.
Its a solid business and I expect a rebound in mark to market gains in FY 2015
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Unga Group reports H1 PBT +78.045% 2014 Earnings here share price +13.20% in 2015 Kenyan Economy |
Par Value: 5/-
Closing Price: 45.00
Total Shares Issued: 75708872.00
Market Capitalization: 3,406,899,240
EPS: 6.35
PE: 7.087
First Half Results through 31st December 2014 versus through Dec 2013 [restated]
First Half Revenue 9.651343b versus 8.836517b
First Half Operating Profit 409.764m versus 293.541m
First Half Other Income 169.579m versus 32.964m
Foreign Exchange Losses [52.088m] versus 4.263m
First Half Profit before Taxation 527.254m versus 330.768m
First Half Profit after Tax 412.241m versus 231.537m +78.045%
First Half Earnings Per Share 3.41 versus 1.96
Company Commentary
improved financial performance attributable to the full period impact
of capacity and efficiency gains from the new wheat mill and gains
from the sale of group's investment in Bullpak limited
Increased sifted maize meal volumes realised as a consequence of a 25%
average decline in finished product prices
new route-to-consumer strategy for its kenyan human nutrition business
acquisition of majority shareholding in Ennsvalley Bakery limited is
progressing towards completion.
Conclusions
Strong Earnings.
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N.S.E Today |
We are now slap bang in the middle of the Earnings Season here at the
Nairobi Securities Exchange.
The Nairobi Bourse has been on quite a Roll in 2015 and accelerated
sharply out of the blocks in 2015.
The move higher was juiced by a re routing of international funds
pointed at Lagos to Nairobi [and South Africa]
Further Juice was added by the perception that the SSA Oil Consumer
Economies will get some relief from the lower Oil Price structure and
put something in the Pocket of the Consumer.
In my Interview, Joshua Oigara drew a parallel between underlying
conditions at this moment and conditions in Q4 2007 when the Economy
was in the sweetest of sweet spots.
The Nairobi NSE20 surged to Fresh more than 60 month High to close at
5,491.37. The NSE20 has rallied 379 points and +7.42% in a blistering
start to 2015.
The Nairobi All Share is +7.864% and just marginally off a record high
reached this week,
The Equity market rally has legs.
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N.S.E Equities - Commercial & Services |
Safaricom ticked +0.32% higher to close at 15.80 and traded 9.18m
shares worth 144.235m. Safaricom has surged +12.455% and a whisker off
an all time closing High reached earlier this week. I expect the Price
to break through 16.00 and meaningfully in the near term.
We learnt from the Business Daily that Jamii Bora is now the single
largest shareholder in Uchumi and has overtaken the Government of
Kenya and this news popped Uchumi shares +8.91% higher to close at
11.00 on heavy volume action of 1.386m shares worth 15.242m. As it
currently stands, Uchumi is undersized for the optimal Growth
Trajectory and as such needs a Partner with deep pockets. Clearly
Jamii Bora sees that as an Opportunity.
Nation Media ticked 0.38% easier to close at 261.00 but traded shares
as low as 253.00 -3.44%. Nation Media [and Standard Group] shares have
behaved with some resilience given that it is estimated that the
Stand-Off is costing approximately 230m daily across the 3 Networks
Nation, Standard and Citizen. Nation Media is -0.76% in 2015 and looks
a very benign price reaction to something that will have a less than
benign impact on Earnings. A Profits Warning is surely now overdue.
Standard Group reacted 4.278% lower to close at 44.75 and traded 2,100
shares. Standard Group is -1.10% in 2015 and evidently the downside
risk is of a greater magnitude than the upside opportunity.
ScanGroup popped +2.04% higher to close at 50.00 which is a more than
6 month closing High. ScanGroup traded 334,100 shares and has bounced
+11.11% over the last two trading sessions.
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N.S.E Equities - Finance & Investment |
Kenya Commercial Bank reported really muscular FY Earnings Thursday
morning and expanded the Asset Base by 100b Year on Year which frankly
is the loudest signal in the Earnings Noise. Yesterdays subdued price
reaction was on the unchanged Dividend, in my opinion. The Key Point
to note is that KCB sees a step growth Trajectory ahead of it and is
conserving cash for that accelerated expansion. This line of thinking
leaked into the market today lifting the share price +2.542% to close
at 60.50 and KCB traded shares as high as 64.50 +9.32% [an all time
High Price Print] during the session. Kenya Commercial Bank is +6.14%
in 2015 and set to run up to 66.00 in the short term. Kenya Commercial
bank traded 2.58m shares with Buyers for twice that volume seen at the
Finish Line.
CO-OP Bank firmed 2.272% to close at 22.50 and traded 1.721m shares.
CO-OP Bank shares have run +12.5% higher over the course of the last
15 trading sessions as Investors anticipate Full Year Earnings.
Standard chartered Bank rallied 1.142% to close at 354.00 which is a
Fresh 2015 high.
Pan Africa insurance reported FY PAT 2014 declined to 871.190m from
1.2504b before the Opening Bell. They had issued a Full Year Profits
Warning a little late and on the 18th of February. They are
Recommending a bonus dividend of 1 new share for every two held in
lieu of a cash dividend and it was this news which was the Trigger for
a 7.142% rally in the share price which closed at 120.00. Pan Africa
was printing trades at 129.00 +15.18% at the Finale. Its a solid
business and I expect a rebound in mark to market gains in FY 2015.
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N.S.E Equities - Industrial & Allied |
EABL retreated a further 2.83% to close at 309.00 and traded 198,500
shares. EABL has retreated a steep 10.43% over six trading sessions.
This bearish price action was a consequence of the Keroche Breweries
Scale-Up Plan and is a massive overreaction.
KENGEN reported an eye popping +106.42% acceleration in First Half
PAT. First Half revenue surged +36.54% and Earnings per share
ratcheted +386.95% higher. KENGEN benefited significantly from a KES
1.1bn tax credit as a result of capital allowances related to the
commissioning of the Ol-Karia Geothermal Facility. As a result of the
significant increase in earnings-per-share in 1H15, the company now
trades at a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 3.5 and a
price-to-book ratio of 0.3 as at close-of-business on Thursday 26th
February. The Challenge for investors remains that KENGEN is set to
launch a Capital Call for 30b shillings which will be massively
dilutive Mr. Mugo needs to grasp the moment and roll out the Capital
Call because its been a Drag for a while. KENGEN surged +13.68% to
close at 12.05 on heavy volume action of 4.428m shares worth 53.452m
and traded shares as high as 13.00 +22.6415% during the session.
BAT Kenya reported an 11% Acceleration in Full Year Profit Before Tax
with Full Year Gross Turnover expanding +7.00%. The Company cited
''incremental contract manufacturing volumes from the DRC'' as
enhancing its Turnover. BAT is the preeminent dividend paying stock at
the Nairobi Securities Exchange and pays 99.88% of its Earnings Per
share out as Dividend. BAT ticked 0.3416% lower to close at 875.00 on
meaningful volume action of 128,900 shares worth 112.797m.
Unga Group reported a +78.045 First Half Profit before Tax
acceleration and said ''improved financial performance attributable to
the full period impact of capacity and efficiency gains from the new
wheat mill and gains from the sale of group's investment in Bullpak
limited'' Unga rallied +5.55% to close at 47.50 and traded shares as
high as 49.50 +10.00% at the closing Bell. Unga was a Stand-out
Performer in 2014 and has now served up a +19.496% return in 2015.
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