Semdex, the main index of the Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM), dipped by 0.4% to close at 2,067.21 points, according to market highlights published by Anglo-Mauritius Stockbrokers for the week ending March 14, 2014.

On the other hand, the Sem-7 index is estimated to have closed at 402.70 points, representing an increase of 0.7%, spurred on by the Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB), State Bank of Mauritius (SBM) and Altea. MCB, SBM and Altea improved by 0.9%, 1.9%, and 0.4% respectively. It may be noted that the SEM-7 comprises the seven largest eligible shares of the Official Market, measured in terms of average market capitalisation, liquidity and investibility criteria.

The banking sector saw MCB end the week at Rs 215 with 107.7 thousand shares traded at a volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of Rs 213.58. SBM closed the week at Rs 1.06 with17.8million shares exchanged and a VWAP of Rs 1.05. In contrast, Bramer Banking stagnated at Rs 7.10 with 37.3 thousand shares traded.

In the insurance space, Swan is the only company which bettered share prices, increasing by 2.0% to reach Rs 296.00 on a traded volume of 2.3 thousand shares. On the other hand, CFS dipped by 0.7% to Rs 8.00 with 141.8 thousand shares exchanged.

All hotel stocks ended the week in red. Industry bellwether New Mauritius Hotels (which owns the Beachcomber brand) saw a dip of 0.6% to Rs 80.00 with 103.1 thousand shares traded while Lux* Island Resorts lost 0.3% to reach Rs 37.30 with 124.1 thousand shares. Sun Resorts maintained a downward trend to finish at Rs 38.50, representing a decrease of 3.8% week-on-week.

In addition, property companies suffered a decline with BlueLife and Le Meritt losing 5.0% and 4.6% respectively. Sugar major Omnicane also dipped 1.1% to Rs 87.00 with 24,000 shares traded.

ENL commercial gave up 3.9% to Rs 22.00 on 2,600 shares. Over the three trading sessions, Innodis traded at Rs 55.00 while Thursday saw its traded volume cross 30,000 shares but the stock dropped to Rs 54.50 and only 100 traded shares at week-close, marking a loss of 0.9% week-on-week.

The construction sector had a poor run last week with a dip of 6.5% in Gamma Civic to Rs 43.00 on 9,500 shares. UBP was not spared the downward spiral in construction either, with a decline of 1.1% to Rs 86.50 on 36,000 shares.

In the industrial space, Moroil was the only gainer with a growth of 1.8% to Rs 28.00 on 9,500 shares.

Over the short week, with a mid-week break to mark Independence Day, a notable volume of 1.0 million shares was exchanged on conglomerate CIEL Limited but the stock hit a weekly low of Rs 6.32 before closing at Rs 6.50, representing a drop of 6.6% week-on-week.

As for Alteo, the conglomerate gained 0.4% to reach Rs 34.00 with 68,200 shares traded, whilst Terra dropped by 0.5% to Rs 38.30 with 68.4 thousand shares. On the other hand, ENL Land fell to Rs 45.45 on Monday to trade at that price over the next sessions before closing last week’s session at Rs 49.50 with 50.9 thousand shares traded.

Other movers on the investment counter were Belle Mare Holding which rose 3.7%, National Investment Trust with a jump of 2.7%, while United Dock suffered a dip of 2.8%, POLICY decreased 1.5% and Promotion & Development had a 1.2% fall. ASL fell by 6.6% to Rs 110.25 on 8.3 thousand shares traded.

Overall, market turnover amounted to Rs 109.3 million and foreign investors were net buyers to the tune of Rs 10.7 million.

Image (The Alternative): The banking sector had a good run, with MCB and SBM rising 0.9% and 1.9% respectively while Bramer Banking stayed steady at Rs 7.10 per share.

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