TPS Eastern Africa Swells the Raft of 2015 Profit Warnings

The equities market re-opened on a positive note as all indicators closed in the green. The NSE-20 share index gained 0.47% to close at 4008.63 points whilst the NSE-25 share index, edged up by 0.61% to close at 4186.24 points. The NSE All Share index similarly went up by 0.04% to close at 145.61 points. Shareholder’s wealth expanded by 0.04% to settle at KES 2,048.29 billion whilst equity turnover gained 4.11% to close at KES 0.656 billion. The healthier market conditions were further exemplified by the A/D ratio which improved by 7bps to 0.85x.

TPS Eastern Africa Ltd (NSE: TPSE) added onto the list of companies that have issued profit warnings from the beginning of the year, announcing that it anticipates its earnings for the period to be ended 31st December 2015 , to be at least 25% below the profit reported in a similar period last year. The company attributed the expected downside risk to the travel advisories issued by various countries, terrorist threats and the Ebola epidemic which originated from West African countries. On a positive note, the UK and French governments have recently lifted their travel bans, hence we portend an improvement in the tourism business landscape going forward.

Equity Market Highlights

Equity Group Holdings Ltd (NSE: EQTY) was the most heavily traded stock accounting for 67.70% of the total market activity. Safaricom Ltd (NSE: SCOM) came in second, accounting for 16.87% of the days traded value.

Agricultural sector was the best performing sector as Sasini Ltd (NSE: SASN) capped the gainers list with a price appreciation of 8.43% to close the day at KES 22.50. The company declared a dividend per share of KES 0.25. Williamson Tea Kenya Ltd (NSE: WTK) climbed up 8.40%, to close at KES 400.00.

Sameer Africa Ltd (NSE: FIRE) was the top laggard, depreciating by 7.50% to KES 3.70. British American Tobacco Kenya Ltd (NSE: BAT) lost 6.73% to KES 735.00, as negative sentiments continued to stock the counter over the bribery scandal.