Shilling Performance Varies as Foreigners Account for 79.74 Percent in Wednesday Session

Foreign activity versus local activity stood at 79.74 percent to 20.26 percent of total turnover in Wednesday’s session at the NSE.

Dominating the session were distributive activities with net outflows of 24.48 million shillings in comparison to net inflows of 30.38 million shillings recorded in the previous session.

Safaricom Ltd (NSE: SCOM) emerged as the top foreign traded counter in today’s session recording a turnover of 540.54 million shillings being 67.16 percent of total activity and 84.23 percent of foreign investor activity.

Equity Group Holdings Ltd (NSE: EQTY) came remotely second with a turnover of 23.57 million shillings, accounting for 2.93 percent of total market activity and 3.67 percent of foreign investor activity.

KenGen Co Ltd (NSE: KEGN) continued eliciting an interest in foreign buys logging the day’s highest net inflows of 20.1 million shillings whilst KenolKobil Ltd (NSE: KENO) enumerated the day’s highest net outflows 20.96 million shillings.

The Shilling

The Kenyan shilling posted varied performance against a set of selected currencies in Wednesday’s session.

The currency was steady against the US dollar on Wednesday with increased inflows from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) anticipating monthly salary payments.

The shilling strengthened 0.15 percent against the Euro to close at 108.85. Final economic data release for Eurozone January inflation showed a growth of 1.80% y/o/y.

The rise in the inflation figures was mostly driven by an 8.10% y/o/y increase in energy prices, from 2.60 percent recorded in December, buoyed by the dialing upward in the oil price.

The pound strengthened in today’s session as the second estimate by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) raised Q416 growth to 0.70 percent from the initial estimate of 0.60 percent. The growth was attributed to a better-than-expected performance within the manufacturing industry as well as increased exports (4.1% q/q).

Among African currencies, the shilling weakened 0.11 percent against the South African Rand as the market focused on Pravin Gordhan’s – Finance Minister – budget speech in the course of the day. Closer home, the Ugandan and Tanzanian currencies strengthened slightly against the local unit. The Ugandan shilling’s sturdy performance was on foreign inflows geared to government securities purchase.

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