Shilling under pressure as oil importers’ dollar demand rises

By Amina Faki

The performance of the Kenya shilling in the market has been on the receiving end with the shilling weakening for the second week in a row.

On Tuesday it weakened by 1.2 percent, 5.1 percent and 8.2 percent against the US Dollar, the Sterling Pound and the Euro year-to-date respectively.

On the Kenyan Stock Market, the market turnover at the bourse dropped 46.1 percent to 5.8 million US dollars (598.6 million Kenya shillings) from Friday’s trading.

The NSE 20 declined to 0.21 percent to close at 3,616.31 million USD, and on the other hand the NASI Index gained 0.63 percent to close at 155.56 million USD.

On the other hand foreign investors assumed a net selling position by accounting 64.4 percent of the total market purchase and for 79.8 percent of the total market sales.

Market activity took a slight dip from the previous session, with turnover down 45.9 percent with few dominant players.

WPP Scangroup Ltd (NSE:SCAN) pickup activity in the session, moving blocks on 4.31 million shares. Block trades were also seen in Kenya Re Insurance Corporation Ltd (NSE: KNRE) and Cooperative Bank of Kenya Ltd (NSE: COOP) where the latter attracted selling interest both on the local and foreign fronts.

Foreign investors have been net sellers on COOP for the last seven consecutive sessions.

Equity Group Holdings Ltd (NSE: EQTY) was the day’s top mover, on higher price (+0.7 percent) as foreign investors hang on the buy-side of the counter (for the fourth session in a row). Overall foreign participation notably spiked up in the session to 72.13 percent albeit recording net selling interest.

Crown Paints Kenya Ltd (NSE: BERG) was the highest gainer in the session up 9.2 percent touching its 1-yr high at 72 shillings in the session. The counter gained 14.9 percent in the previous week, attracting demand on the counter following reports of the firm’s intentions to buy back up to 15 percent of its shares. Despite expectations that investors would wait and see the intention behind the company’s buy-back plan, we saw the information encourage local investors to buy into the counter. 

Top gainers on the market turnover were Crown Paints, Kapchorua Tea and NIC Bank closing at 9.2 percent, 8.8 percent, and 5.5 percent 1-day respectively.

On the other hand, Mumias Sugar Company, NBV and Standard group were on receiving end closing in as Top Losers.

Bond turnover closed at 4.01 billion shillings, 84 percent higher from the previous session on 46 deals compared to 24 deals previously.