Foreign Investors Assume Net Selling Position As Turnover Dips

Foreign investors assumed a net selling position by accounting for 92.0 percent of total market sales and 16.7 percent of total market purchases during the trading session on Monday.

However, at the same time, foreign investor participation fell to 54.4 percent of total market activity from 64.1 percent in the previous session.

Activity was mostly on Safaricom, KenolKobil and the Co-operative Bank of Kenya. Net buying activity was mainly on Equity Group and Crown Paints while net selling was mainly on Safaricom, KenolKobil and COOP Bank. Foreign investors remained net sellers for the fourteenth consecutive session.

The Kenyan shilling slightly weakened against the US Dollar on Monday but gained traction against the Sterling Pound and the Euro.

Against the US Dollar, the Kenyan Shilling weakened 0.01 percent to close the day at 101.04. The local currency is still stronger by 2.12 percent on a year-to-date.

Against the Sterling Pound, the local currency strengthened 0.47 percent to close at 131.71. It is also 5.08 percent on a year-to-date.

Against the Euro, shilling strengthened 0.27 percent to close at 115.83 and also still 6.04 percent on a year-to-date.

Market turnover stood at USD 6.45 million, an equivalent to 651.5 million shillings, a 2.9 percent drop from USD 6.64 MN recorded yesterday.

The NSE 20 and NASI declined 0.15 percent and 0.08 percent respectively to close at 2,803.01 and 146.21 respectively.

On the East African Community Markets, in Uganda, the USE ALSI recorded a 1.76 percent increase to close at 1,769.81 while USE LCI held constant at 410.92 while in Rwanda, the RSI and RASI remained at 131.48 and 131.58 respectively.

On the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) trading multiples, the NSE Market Cap-weighted P/E  stood at 15.0x (1.4% ytd), the NSE Market Cap-weighted P/B stood at 5.1x (29.4% ytd) while the NSE Market Cap-weighted Dividend Yield stood at 4.8% (66 bps ytd) and NSE Median Return in Equity (ROE) stood at 9.3% (-30 bps ytd).