Kenyan Equities Market defy bearish market sentiment to remain bullish

The Kenyan  equities market defied the Kenyan elections and was on an upward trend last week.

The NSE 20, NSE 25 and NASI gained  5.3 percent, 4.4 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively, taking their YTD performance to 24.8 percent, 24.7 percent  and 23.7 percent, respectively.

The  week’s performance was driven by gains in select large cap stocks such as Equity Group, KCB Group and Safaricom, which gained 7.5 percent, 7.4 percent  and 4.3 percent, respectively.

Since the February 2015 peak, the market has lost 7.0 percent and 27.7 percent for NASI and NSE 20, respectively.

Equities turnover declined by 45.4 percent to close the week at USD 26.7 mn from USD 48.9mn the previous week.

Foreign investors remained net sellers with a net outflow of USD 0.8 mn compared to a net outflow of USD 10.0 mn recorded the previous week. Foreign investor participation increased to 75.5 percent from 56.9 percent recorded the previous week.

“We expect the market to remain bullish despite the slower corporate earnings growth in 2017 and investor sentiment to be neutral as investors take advantage of the low stock valuations,” according to Cytonn Investments’ analysis.