KCB Group Ltd Enters into Partnership with CIC Insurance Group

KCB Group Ltd (NSE: KCB) has entered into a partnership with CIC Insurance Group (NSE: CIC) to manage 1 billion shillings staff loan portfolio in order to allow the insurer concentrate on its core business.

The pact will see over 500 CIC employees offered loan facilities at below market rate of 6 percent per year on reducing balance. Additionally, the lender will take over existing mortgages and car loans held by CIC Staff.

This partnership is poised to benefit the lender by growing its loan portfolio book whilst the insurance company is well positioned to ride on the banks expertise in managing risk of default. KCB Group Ltd was amongst the most actively traded stock today, accounting for 9.05 percent of the total market turnover. The share price closed at 28.25 shillings.

On Thursday trading session, the market ended the day with mixed results as depicted by market indicators and the value of transactions.

The NSE-20 share index shed off 0.63 percent to close at 3264.03 points while the NSE All Share Index followed suit, plummeting by 0.15 percent to close at 137.53 points.

On the other hand, the NSE 25 share index was similarly on the downward trend, plunging by 0.38 percent from yesterday’s close to 3644.92 points.  Market capitalization extended by 0.44 percent to 1.992 trillion shillings whilst the equity turnover expanded by 36.33 percent to close at 0.292 billion shillings. The advancers -19 outweighed the number of decliners-17 closing at an A/D ratio of 1.12x.

The Kenyan shilling maintained its trend, only rallying against four of its seven international and regional peers.

The local currency rallied against the South African rand, by 0.29 percent, despite recording significant losses against the currency – due to investors’ risk appetite and dovish Fed policies. The rand received significant backing by the Reserve Bank Governor Kganyago, who stated the rand was undervalued despite the country diverging from the US Fed policy program.

Unfortunately for the rand, the political uncertainty on the future of their Finance minister weighs heavily for investors; however losses in the medium-to-short term are supported by merger and acquisition deal; most notably the Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller deal. The shilling continued to rally against the Sterling pound, by 0.11 percent on the day, showing markets stand-offish approach to the UK’s finance minister induction trip to Wall Street; aimed at insuring U.S. top banks that Britain will still be the world’s leading global finance hub, despite the Brexit.