Foreign investors turned net buyers of stocks in February, after injecting $2.2Million into the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
However, during the month, the equities market recorded mixed performances with NASI gaining by 1.5%, while NSE 20 and NSE 25 declined by 2.2% and 1.5%, respectively “Erasing considerable gains from the January rally.”
Analysts from Commercial Bank of Africa noted “This reduced the gains for the benchmark NSE-20 share index from 8.0% at the end of January to 2.91% so far this year. In the period, Ksh 13.40Bn worth of shares were traded with 66.48% of the transactions being attributed to foreign investors.”
The gain recorded in NASI during the month was driven by gains in large cap stocks such as Safaricom, NIC Group, Standard Chartered Bank Kenya (SCBK), and KCB Group, which gained by 9.0%, 6.7%, 2.2%, and 2.0%, respectively.
According to Cytonn Investments February Markets Review, the market is trading at valuations below the historical average, and they believe there is value in the market.
“We expect increased market activity, and possibly increased inflows from foreign investors, as they take advantage of the attractive valuations, to support the positive performance,” they state.
