Market Turnover at the Bourse Declines 38.8%, Shilling Still Losing

The market turnover at bourse declined by 38.8 percent on Wednesday to USD 6.55 million or an equivalent of 678.8 million shillings.

The NSE 20 dropped by 0.54 percent while NASI gained 0.40 percent to close the day at 3,768.38 and 161.99 points respectively.

Foreign investors assumed a net selling position by accounting for 53.0 percent of the total market and 43.1 percent of the total market purchases.

The Kenyan shilling has remained on the receiving end against three major global giants; the US Dollar, the Sterling Pound, and the Euro.

On Wednesday, the shilling weakened against the US Dollar by 1.09 percent on a year-to-date basis. The shilling also weakened against the Sterling Pound and the Euro by 8.41 and 11.94 percent respectively.

On the East African Community Markets, in Rwanda, the RSE RSI nad RASI gained 0.12 percent and 0.02 percent to close the day at 134.22 and 133.31 points respectively. In Uganda, the USE ALSI and USE LCI dropped 0.72 percent and 0.80 percent respectively to close the day at 1,737.77 and 383.52 respectively.

The Kenyan shilling has been on the weakening trend for the better part of this year with matters made worse with the current political situation in the country.

According to economic analysts in the country, a lot of pressure is being put on the shillings as the economy plunges yet into another 14 days of political uncertainty after two petitions challenging the reelection of President Uhuru Kenyatta were filed at the Supreme Court of Kenya.

Cytonn Investments, however, is optimistic that the shilling will be resilient this month after it lost 0.5 percent against the dollar during the month of October. The current political situation has also forced the National Treasury to revise the GDP projections downwards for the third time this year.