Kenya’s Stock Exchange Suspends Trading After Systems Failure

Kenya’s stock exchange failed to open for business Monday morning due to system failure.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) in a notice said the delay was due to “Challenges experienced by a dependent system of the Automated Trading System (ATS).”
Trading resumed in the afternoon from 1:20 pm. 
On Friday, the market closed with foreign investor participation accounting for 78.0 percent of total market turnover from 59.2 percent from Thursday’s close.
The equities market was on an upward trend with NASI, NSE 20 and NSE 25 gaining by 2.9 percent, 1.5 percent, and 2.7 percent, respectively, due to large-cap stocks such as Co-operative Bank, EABL and KCB which gained by 9.4 percent, 5.6 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively. 
“We expect the market to remain subdued in the near-term as international investors exit the broader emerging markets due to the rising interest rates in the US, coupled with strengthening US dollar,” according to Cytonn Investment’s weekly brief.
Genghis Capital Analysts also “Expect subdued trading activity with institutional investors mapping up 4Q18 strategies.” 
The NSE is the biggest capital market in the East African region with 63 listed companies.
Tanzania has 28 listed firms with six cross-listed from Kenya.

Uganda has 16 listed firms of which eight are domestic and eight are cross-listed from Kenya. Rwanda has eight listed firms with four being cross-listed from Kenya.