NAIROBI, KENYA, JAN 3 — Trading at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) commenced on a low pace in the first trade of 2019,as the market made a comeback from the long December-New Year holidays that had reduced investor activities.
The bourse opened its counters for 2019 trading on Tuesday (January 2), where total shares traded closed the day at seven million.
The value of the shares totaled Ksh129.9 million traded in 845 deals, setting the market for yet another 12-month of activities after finishing 2018 on a bear market territory.
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Last year saw the benchmark index-NSE 20 shed 23.66 per cent to close the year at 2833.84. The all-inclusive NASI shed 17.97 per cent to settle at 140.43 while NSE 25 share index shaved-off 731.79 points (17.08 per cent) to settle at 3551.59 points.
On this year’s first day of trading, the NSE 20 Share Index (which tracks the top 20 companies), lost 11.06 points to stand at 2822.78. All Share Index (NASI) shed 0.23 points to stand at 140.20 while the NSE 25 Share Index went down 19.56 points to stand at 3532.03.
The banking sector led the counters with shares worth Ksh67 million being traded, accounting for 51.6 per cent of the day’s traded value.
KCB Group moved 876,000 shares valued at Ksh32.5 million at between Ksh37.00 and Ksh37.45. Equity Group Holdings down twenty cents to Ksh34.65 moved 863,000 shares valued at Ksh29.9 million. Stanbic Holdings moved 17,000 shares worth Ksh1.5 million and closed at Ksh90.00.
Safaricom moved 1.78 million shares valued at Ksh39.6 million at between Ksh22.20 and Ksh23.00 accounting for 30.49 per cent of the day’s traded value.
The energy and petroleum sector had shares worth Ksh17.9 million transacted and represented 13.77 per cent of the day’s traded value. KenGen closed 1.14 per cent higher to Ksh7.10 moving 2.1 million shares valued at Ksh15 million.
Kenya Power and Lighting Company up 4.42 per cent to Ksh4.25 moved 560,000 shares worth Ksh2.3 million.
The manufacturing and allied sector had shares worth Ksh1.5 million transacted which represented 1.19 per cent of the day’s traded value. East Africa Breweries (EABL)exchanged 7,000 shares valued at Ksh1.35 million at between Ksh173.00 and Ksh175.00.
In the investment sector, shares worth Ksh1.1 million were transacted; accounting for 0.85 per cent of the day’s traded value. Centum dominated this platform moving 35,000 shares valued at Ksh1 million, closing at Ksh29.45 per share.
The bond market opened the year with bonds worth 571 million being transacted.
Last year, NSE market capitalization closed at Ksh2.1 trillion, a 15.9 per cent drop from Ksh2.5 trillion in 2017 as majority of the stocks shed value.
Equity turnover however rose by 2.3 per cent to Ksh175 billion from Ksh171billion the previous year.
Safaricom closed the year as the single biggest mover with 2.27 billion shares valued at Ksh62 billion, accounting for 35.37 per cent of total traded value in 2018.
The telco’s shares traded at between Ksh21.75 and an all-time high of Ksh33.50.
The banking sector (with 12 listed banks) had shares worth Ksh64.9 billion transacted which accounted for 36.96 per cent of year’s traded value. Equity Group and KCB group moved Ksh27.6 billion and Ksh21.9 billion respectively.
Equity Group Holdings shares traded at between Ksh34.50 and Ksh57.00 during the year with KCB declining 12.40 per cent to close the year at Ksh37.45, down from Ksh42.75 registered in 2017.
The energy and petroleum sector moved shares worth Ksh19.69 billion, which accounted for 11.21 per cent of the year’s traded value.
The manufacturing and allied sector moved shares worth Ksh17.2 billion which accounted for 9.82 per cent of the year’s traded value, while the insurance sector had shares worth Ksh3.8 billion transacted ( 2.19 per cent) of traded value.
The construction and allied sector which accounting for 1.73 per cent of the year’s traded value had shares worth Ksh3.0 billion transacted,
The bonds market finished the year stronger than 2017, up 29 per cent to Ksh562 billion compared to Ksh435 billion traded in year 2017.
NSE is counting on a number of initiatives among them the “Ibuka” programme launched at the end of last year to revitalize the market which has remained dry on Initial Public Offerings (IPO’s).
‘Ibuka’ is Swahili for emerging. NSE is using the programme as an incubation and acceleration platform mainly for SMEs, with the aim of supporting these businesses to list at the bourse.
