Stock Market in Focus: Weekly Market Review

Market activity rebounded significantly this week despite all the NSE indices ending in the red territory. Total turnover increased to KES 6.7 billion from KES 2.7billion previously on a volume of 358 million shares as compared to 125milion shares traded last week.

The NSE 20 Share Index dropped 28.75 points to close the week at 3187.87 points having been weighed down by the dismal performance of most large cap counters mainly banks reeling from the recent signing of the bill that capped banks interest rates and which triggered investors sell offs though a slight uptrend was witnessed this week; even as the lenders await further guidelines on the implementation of the new law.

Fixed Income:

The treasury bill rates in this week’s auction reversed their six weeks uptrend as the government worked to keep the rates as low as possible following the signing of the bill that caps banks interest rates by the President. The 91-day paper slid to 8.26% from 8.61% earlier, the 182-day paper declined to 11.13% from 11.18% before while the 364-day paper decreased to 11.50% from 11.98% previously.

Currencies:

The Kenyan shilling recorded a slight improvement this week against the US dollar as it closed the last trading day of the week at a mean of KES 101.30 up from an average of KES 101.37 on a similar day last week thanks to subsiding dollar demand from the manufacturing sector and inflows from charities.