Equity Bank First-half Customer Deposits Rose to 320.8 billion Shillings

Market activity kicked off the week on a lower note as all the indicators were in the red. The NSE 20 Share index dropped 6.35 points to close the day at 3456.21 points while the NASI shed 2.02 points to end the day at 144.73 points. The NSE 25 Share index declined by 49.13 points to settle at 3900.01 points.

Market capitalization fell 1.38% to KES 2084.556 billion from KES 2113.711 billion earlier, whilst equity turnover decreased to KES 0.23 billion from KES 1.10 billion previously owing to a significant reduction in the volume of shares traded.

Equity Bank Group reported an 18 percent rise in first-half net profit on Monday to KES 10.1 billion from KES 8.6 billion helped by higher net interest income. Chief Executive Officer James Mwangi told an investor briefing that net interest income rose 37 per cent to KES 21.2 billion.

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Equity, which focuses on the lower-income part of the Kenyan market, also operates in Uganda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo. First-half customer deposits rose to KES 320.8 billion from KES 301.0 billion, Mwangi said.

The bank said the value of transactions on its mobile phone banking service, launched in July 2015, stood at KES 97.8 billion at the end of June versus KES 49.5 billion in July 2015.It said its total assets rose to KES 444.4 billion from KES 400.9 billion a year earlier.

Currency

The Kenya shilling was steady against the US dollar on Monday’s trading as it exchanged at a mean of KES 101.36 slightly changed from an average of KES 101.37 previously. The shilling is anticipated to come under pressure in the near term because of a likely end of month increase in demand from.

The local currency gained a meagre 0.87% against but lost marginally against the Euro. The GBP has depreciated notably since the Brexit vote with the move lower accelerating following the larger-than-expected Bank of England easing package announced on August 4th.