Foreign Investors Dominate Trading at the NSE with 63.7pc

By Amina Faki

Equities turnover declined by 33.9 percent to close the week at 40.5 million US dollars from 61.2 million US dollars the previous week.

Foreign investors remained net sellers with net outflows of 6.5 million dollars compared to net outflows of 5.8 million dollars recorded the previous week. Foreign investor participation increased to 63.7 percent from 49.0 percent recorded the previous week.

The equities market on the other hand, was on an upward trend with NSE 25, NSE 20 and NASI gaining 2.0 percent, 1.6 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively during the week, wrote Cytonn Report.

The Year to Date performance closed 16.9 percent 16.1 percent and 16.5 percent, for the NSE 25, NSE 20 and NASI respectively.

Last week’s performance was driven by:

Gains in select large cap banking stocks such as Diamond Trust Bank (DTB), Co-operative Bank and Equity Group, which gained 8.5%, 6.8% and 4.6%, respectively.

The gain in DTB is attributed to the completion of the Habib Bank take-over this week, while Co-operative Bank’s gain was due to renewed foreign investor interest. Since the February 2015 peak, the market has lost 12.5% and 32.7% for NASI and NSE 20, respectively.

According to Cytonn, corporate earnings growth to be slower in 2017 and investor sentiment to be neutral, mainly due to the forthcoming general elections.