The local market maintained an all too familiar trend as the week begun, showing sustained adverse market conditions, as both indexes recorded losses. The Nairobi All Share Index dropped 2.18% to close the trading day at 146.40 with the NSE-20 also shedding 1.54% to 4337.47. Both market capitalisation and equity turnover followed suit as the former decreased by 2.03% to KES. 2056Bn and the latter shed a significant 85.94% from the previous day registering KES. 291.54Mn; as 14 million shares traded compared to Friday’s 57 million.
The electricity distributor registered improvements in performance over six months, ended 30 June 2015; as the top line recorded a 13.4% increase to Ushs 547.6Bbn. This was the result of a 19.1% reduction in energy losses, attributed to the implementation of the loss reduction strategy, and a 6.6% increment in power purchases (GWh). A 16% increase in customer numbers further emphasized the progress made by UMEME, with a 100,132 additional customers over the last twelve months recording the highest connection rate the company has ever achieved.
However, despite such impressive numbers, the 30.6% increase in gross profits- to Ushs 153.5Bn- could not sustain a Ushs. 13.8Bn increase in financing costs and unrealised foreign exchange losses worth Ushs 61.8Bn. The USE and NSE cross-listed company ended the six months with a Ushs 4.5Bn net loss after tax and announced an interim dividends of Ushs 10.8 per share, to be paid out of retained earnings on 21 December 2015; book closure remains on 4 December 2015.
