The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) market extended gains by closing higher in volume and turnover week ending January 17.
The listed banking and Kenya’s largest telecoms operator Safaricom Plc stocks dominated the weeks’ activities accounting for 83.86 percent of the total market activity.
“Total shares traded and equity turnover increased by 88.78 percent and 110.45 percent, respectively, during the week ending January 16,” said the Central Bank in its weekly report.
“However, NASI, NSE 25 share price index, NSE 20 share price index and market capitalization declined by 2.19 percent, 1.97 percent, 0.85 percent, and 2.19 percent, respectively.”
The performance in NASI was driven by losses recorded by most large-cap stocks such as Equity Bank, KCB Group, BAT, Safaricom and Co-operative Bank of (6.4%), (5.9%), (4.0%), (4.0%) and (3.0%), respectively.
Weekly turnover rose by 50.38 percent (Ksh4.0 Billion) compared to the previous week of KSh 2.66 Billion with an average daily turnover at Ksh 728 Million.
“Foreign investors accounted for 58.5% of the week’s total activity compared to 64.7% in the previous week. Foreign investors were net buyers for the third consecutive week, logging net inflows of Ksh 667.0 million compared to inflows of Ksh 80.7 million
in the previous week,” said Genghis Capital.
Kenya Shilling
The Kenya Shilling remained stable against major international and regional currencies during the week ending January 16. It exchanged at KSh 101.38 per US Dollar on January 16, compared to KSh 101.47 on January 9.
Access Bank PLC is targeting to enhance its corporate and retail banking business in Kenya through the acquisition.
“Once completed, this will be the first bank acquisition in 2020, with the deal expected to be completed in February 2020, and will be in line with our expectation of consolidation in the Kenyan banking sector as players with depleted capital positions become acquired by their larger counterparts or merge together to form well-capitalized entities capable of navigating the relatively tough operating environment induced by stiff competition,” observes Cytonn Investments.
Global Trends Global financial market sentiments improved during the week following the signing of the first phase of the US-China trade pact that defused the 18-month trade tensions between the two countries.
Source: CBK
