Market Turnover Hits Ksh 3.4Bn Amid Heavily Bid Market

Market turnover for Wednesday closed at 3.4 billion shillings with the market still heavily bid according to stats by Genghis Capital.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) reopened the FXD2/2018/15 for a face value of 32 billion shillings. This is the first time the CBK is reopening a bond within the month as opposed to doing a TAP sale.

The reopening of the bond by CBK is a clear indicator of bidding levels for investors, with most choosing to be conservative and place bids at levels around the average yield in the last auction 12.65 -12.75 percent.

However, market analysts at Genghis don’t expect to see the same levels of subscriptions for the reopened FXD2/2018/15 as in the previous auction with bargain hunters sitting out and only investors who need an allocation to participate.

The shilling closed the day at 101.1 on the back of an IMF statement earlier in the day indicating the shilling is overvalued by 17.5 percent.

The overnight rate came off 30bps to average at 3.5 percent as the regulator came in to correct a skewed liquidity position by injecting 1.02 billion shillings at 9.02 percent.

In Thursday’s trading, market analysts expect activity to remain centered on the main market movers; KCB, Equity and Safaricom.

On KCB and Equity, analysts expect the stocks to trade lower with supply outstripping demand. However, the counters may close at current levels.

On Safaricom, analysts might see the counter oscillate between 23-24 shillings as the market exudes balanced demand and supply for the stock.