The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) witnessed a marginal drop in its weekly turnover as indices closed mixed during the week ending Oct 23.
The NASI and NSE 25 recorded gains of 1.1% and 0.1%, respectively, while NSE 20 recorded a loss of 0.7%, taking their Year To Date (YTD) performance to losses of 15.1%, 21.6%, and 32.2%, for NASI, NSE 25 and NSE 20, respectively.
The NASI performance was driven by gains recorded by large-cap stocks, with the highest gains being recorded by Safaricom and Bamburi which were up 2.8% and 1.9%, respectively.
The gains were however weighed down by losses recorded by other large-cap stocks such as EABL, Co-operative Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank, which declined by 3.7%, 3.4% and 3.2%, respectively.
For instance, the weekly turnover on Friday shed 0.1% to Ksh1.30 billion from Ksh1.31 billion transacted the previous week.
“We expect the market’s cautiousness to persist in the coming week as uncertainty increases about the economy under wave 2 pandemic Attack,” says Genghis Capital Analysts.
“We are “Neutral” on equities for investors because, despite the sustained price declines, which have seen the market P/E decline to below its historical average presenting investors with attractive valuations in the market, the economic outlook remains grim,” Cytonn Investments add.
