Kenyan Shilling Still Heading South Despite Optimism

The Kenyan Shilling has continued to head south for the fourth day this week despite the optimism of some market analysis that things were set to normalize.

On Thursday, the Kenyan Shilling weakened against the US Dollar by 1.09 percent on a year-to-date basis. The shilling also weakened against the Sterling Pound by 8.42 percent and against the Euro by 12.27 percent.

On the Kenyan Stock Market, the market turnover at the bourse dropped by 76.6 percent to USD 1.54 million or an equivalent of 159.2 million shillings from Wednesday’s trading.

The NSE 20 and NASI declined 0.17 percent and 0.14 percent to close the day on Thursday at 3,762.11 and 161.76 respectively.

On the other hand, foreign investors assumed a net selling position by accounting for 60.8 percent of total market sales and 51.3 percent of total market purchases.

The East African Community Markets registered mixed reactions with Rwanda’s RSE RSI and RASI remaining at 134.22 and 133.31 respectively while Uganda’s USE ALSI and USE LCI went up by 0.50 percent and 0.38 percent to close the day at 1,746.49 and 384.97 respectively.

Equities closed lower with all benchmarks facing south on diminished market activity on Thursday.

The turnover fell 76.6 percent to 159.2 million shillings (a six month low) from 678 million shillings on Thursday.

Safaricom Plc (NSE: SCOM) continued receiving the most interest at 49.0 percent of the total market activity. Large banks also continue seeing increased participation with investors taking the position as banks announce 3Q17 financial results. KCB Group Plc (NSE: KCB), Barclays Bank of Kenya Ltd (NSE: BBK) and Equity Group Holdings Plc (NSE: EQTY) topped Thursday’s trading chart.

Foreign investors regained control of the market activity, at 55.8 percent from Wednesday’s 48.0 percent. They continued accumulating EQTY and added Nairobi Securities Exchange Plc (NSE: NSE) and Britam Holdings Plc (NSE: BRIT) in Thursday’s session.  Exit from SCOM continued in the session through to a comparatively lesser extent, with an outflow of 106.9 thousand shillings from a net outflow of 42.5 million shillings. Other net sell positions were on KCB and Stanlib Fahari-REIT (NSE: FAHR). Foreigners were net sellers in the session, with a net outflow of 7.5 million shillings from 33.7 million shillings in the previous session.