Equity Market Widely Ruled by Varying Movements

By Soko Directory Team / Published April 5, 2016 | 7:45 am

The Kenyan Equity market was widely ruled by varying movements as displayed by the indices as well as the total value of transactions. The NSE-20 share index, which is often used as the benchmark of all the equities, registered a 0.30% increase to end at 4008.50 points and this was above the psychological mark of 4000.

The NSE All share Index on the other hand took a negative deviation of 0.10 percent to close at 146.88 points while the NSE 25 Share Index too declined by 0.1 points to close at 4233.02 points. The total value traded at the NSE closed on a positive note of 0.416 billion shillings, having increase by 42.42%.

At the same time, the market capitalization declined by 0.11% to end the day at 2,070.34 billion shillings from 2,072.52 billion shillings. The total market breadth, showed a slight drop as the number of stocks that advanced were outweighed by the number of stocks that declined (-16 and -23 respectively)

Equitel Mobile loans announced the increase in the number of times a subscriber can borrow loans. Following this announcement, Equitel mobile banking is now seen to grow at a faster rate according to financial analysts. The Equitel Mobile now allows customers to borrow three million shillings compared to the previous 200,000 shillings with a total of 12 months as the maximum repayment period.

In the year 2015, Equitel which had a total of 1.7 million customers had already transacted a total of 151 billion shillings while the value of Equitel loans was at 8.5 billion shillings. Equity Group’s loan book grew by 26.0% to 269.89 billion shillings while its net interest income grew by 17 percent in 105 Financial Year.

The Kenyan shilling on the other hand begun the week on a low note, shedding off points against all its international and regional peers except for one. The shillings lost 0.11 percent against the dollar to close the day trading at 101.50. The shilling however gained against the Sterling pound by 0.40 percent and this is stimulated by the construction PMI matched that February’s 10 month low of 54.2.

Against the Indian Rupee, the shilling suffered by losing 0.53 percent, as the Rupee benefits from a restricting program borne years prior. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to announce an interest rate cut by 25 basis points to 6.5 percent, as inflation remains within the 6% target.

In other news on the markets, trading in the secondary bond market amplified as bond turnover extended by 93% to KES 1.47 billion from KES 760.55 million the previous week. Trades were focused towards intermediate tenor and infrastructure bonds – where the IFB1/2015/9Year recorded the highest traded volumes worth KES 700 million.

On the money market, the conditions in the interbank market remained relatively unchanged from the previous week – this was indicated by the interbank rate which settled at 4.24%. Yesterday we observed the first cross currency REPO transaction taking place between Kenyan commercial banks. Meanwhile, the local unit weakened against the US Dollar, 0.11%, to close trading at 101.50; as the pair faced a quiet trading session and investors remained dovish on three Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members to speak before markets open tomorrow.

Article by Juma Fred.

About Soko Directory Team

Soko Directory is a Financial and Markets digital portal that tracks brands, listed firms on the NSE, SMEs and trend setters in the markets eco-system.Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/SokoDirectory and on Twitter: twitter.com/SokoDirectory

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