But the company will not be trading on the BSE any longer because its new American owners have delisted it
KEABETSWE NEWEL
Shares of delisted eco-tourism outfit, Wilderness Holdings Limited, exchanged hands more than those of any other company during the first half (H1) of 2019, the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) reveals in its latest market report.
During this period, the top three traded companies in terms of value on a year-to-date basis were Wilderness Holdings, as well as giant financial services firm Botswana insurance Holdings Limited (BIHL) and dominant beer maker Sechaba Breweries Holdings Limited.
Wilderness traded shares to the value of a whopping P283.3 million while BIHL’s were valued at P120.6 million and the St Louis beer maker traded shares worth P114.9 million. But Wilderness has since delisted and its shares will no longer trade on the BSE.
During the same period in 2018, the three companies accounted for 74.1 percent of turnover relative to 59.7 percent in 2019, indicating improved contribution to turnover by companies in 2019 relative to 2018.
Meanwhile, Standard Chartered’s share price decreased by 50 percent during the first half of the year. StanChart currently trades at 167 thebe per share. The share prices of Tlou Energy and SeedCo also declined by 48.7 percent and 45.5 percent respectively. Tlou is trading at 80 thebe per share while SeedCo is at 300 thebe.
Behemoth commercial bank First National Bank Botswana’s (FNBB) share price gained the most during the period, increasing by 12.2 percent followed by property outfit Letlole La Rona and Sechaba, which increased by 5.1 percent and 2.8 percent respectively. FNBB’s share price is at 275 thebe, LLR’s 205 thebe while Sechaba is at 2056 thebe per share.
Of the 35 companies listed on the bourse (including the Serala OTC registered BBS Limited) six experienced a share price increase, 19 registered a share price decline while share prices of 10 companies ended the period flat.
Performance was comparatively low with respect to trading activity and liquidity. As at 30 June 2019, the BSE has recorded a turnover of P866.9 million from a volume of 257.4 million shares traded. During the same period in 2018, the BSE had registered a turnover of over P1 billion and a total volume of 411.6 million shares traded.
During the first half of 2019, local companies contributed 58.7 percent to total turnover compared to 60.1 percent in the corresponding period in 2018. Further, local individuals contributed 4.7 percent of total turnover recorded during the period 1 January to 30 June 2019 in comparison to 3.5 percent in the corresponding period in 2018.
Trading in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) was relatively low in the first half of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018. The value of units traded decreased in the year to-date period to P62 million compared to P186.9 million in the corresponding period in 2018, whereas the number of units traded decreased from two million units in 2018 and 0.58 million units in 2019. From a return perspective, the ETFs performed well in comparison to equities. The NewGold, NewPlat and NewFunds ETFs gained 10.6 percent, 4.5 percent and 7.7 percent respectively.
The bond market experienced a slowdown in trading activity compared to the same period in 2018. The value of bonds traded during the year-to-date period was P523.8 million compared to P755.7 million traded during the same period in 2018. At its first bond auction of 2019 on 1 March 2019, Bank of Botswana (BoB) offered additional tranches of the following bonds – BW013 (P137 million allotted) and BW014 (P335.0 million allotted) bonds and a treasury bill (P350 million allotted).
At its second auction of the year conducted on 31 May 2019, the following bonds were reopened – BW007 (P150 million allotted), BW014 (P227 million allotted), BW015 (P100 million allotted). In addition, a treasury bill was reopened (P300.0 million allotted). The BSE has registered two bond listings in the first half of 2019, being the RDCP001 (P47.35 million) and CGL001 (P128.51 million). On the back of the government bonds’ re-openings and new corporate issuances, the market capitalisation of listed bonds increased to P15.8 billion compared to P14.6 billion at the same period in 2018.