The Weekly Market Review: The NSE in Focus

The Nairobi bourse recorded a decline this week as all the market indicators headed south.

Equity turnover dropped to 1.89 billion shillings from 2.02 billion shillings previously, on the movement of 100 million and 82 million shares respectively. Market capitalization fell too below the 2 trillion-shilling mark.

The NSE 20 Share Index shed 25.36 points to close the week at 3265.89 points while the NSE All Share Index lost 1.33 points to end the week at 137.40 points. The NSE 25 Share Index decreased to 3647.95 points from 3691.88 points last week.

Fixed Income:

Treasury bills this week were on an upward trajectory with the 3-month paper leading the trend due to increased interest from investors as indicated by a 148 percent subscription rate compared to 116 percent and 89 percent for the six months and the one year papers respectively.

With anticipation of high redemptions for T-bonds in December, we expect that investors will mainly dwell on the short end of the curve as a result of the uncertainty of interest rates in the near term especially with the MPC meeting being held on Monday next week.

Currencies:

The Kenya shilling weakened slightly against the US dollar at the beginning of the week owing to increased demand for dollars as holiday’s approach. It however stabilized towards the end of the week due to support it received from the supply of dollars by the Central bank and the reduction in demand for the green back.

The shilling declined against the Pound owing to the Sterling’s recent gains as the tone from Europe appears to be softening towards the Brexit and ongoing talks are that we could see a lenient Brexit.

(All the information in this article is from Kingdom Securities)