Mauritian Benchmark Index Rises 3.7% in July, Biggest Gain Since January

Mauritius’s benchmark stock measure had the biggest monthly gain since January as the euro strengthened against the dollar and Mauritian rupee, boosting the share prices of companies that earn revenue in the European currency.

The 38-member SEMDEX Index surged 3.7 percent in July, the second consecutive rise, when it rose 4.8 percent. The measure closed 0.1 percent lower at 1,716.06 as of 1:30 p.m. in the capital, Port Louis.

With the euro’s appreciation “investors turn to companies having strong revenues in that currency, such as the tourism sector and textiles,” Kishen Nadassen, an analyst with Cim Stockbrokers, said in an interview from Port Louis today. “As long as the euro strengthens versus the dollar and the rupee, it will have a positive impact on the stock exchange.”

Harel Mallac Group, an engineering and electronics company with operations in Madagascar, Seychelles and Comoros, surged 23 percent over the month. Today it closed unchanged at 215 rupees.

Air Mauritius Ltd., which reports its earnings in euros, gained for the first month in four, rising 6.3 percent. Rogers & Co. Ltd., which has a 13.5 percent stake in Air Mauritius and owns 17.6 percent of New Mauritius Hotels Ltd., the country’s biggest leisure group, rose 6 percent in the month to 267 rupees.

The euro strengthened 6.3 percent against the dollar this month, reaching $1.3004 as of 2:27 p.m. in London, while against the rupee, the euro gained to 39.2496 after reaching the weakest level in a year of 38.9281 on July 9.

Sugar, Tourism

Europe accounted for 61 percent of Mauritius’s exports in the first quarter of this year, while two thirds of visitors to the island nation are from Europe, according to the Central Statistics Office.

Mauritius, an island about 500 miles (805 kilometers) off the east coast of Madagascar, earns most of its foreign currency from tourism and exports of sugar, clothing and textiles.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kamlesh Bhuckory in Port Louis via Johannesburg at 1934 or asguazzin@bloomberg.net; Ana Monteiro in Johannesburg at amonteiro4@bloomberg.net

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