Nairobi Exchange Climbs, KCB, Equity, Safaricom Move Market
The Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) Index surged on Wednesday, with notable gainers including Kenya Airways (up 7.7%), Umeme Ltd (up 7.6%), Unga Group (up 6.6%), Sasin (up 5.8%), and Kenya Re (up 5.5%).
Overall, the market increased by 2.3%, bolstered by a 2.6% rise in NSE 10 counters. The NSE 20 and NSE 25 indices rose by 1.9% and 2.2%, respectively, while banking stocks saw an average increase of 2.5%.
Trading data released indicates that the shares traded increased by 72.1%, rising from 14.88 million to 25.61 million. This contributed to a significant 93.3% surge in daily turnover, climbing from KES 420.17 million to KES 812.27 million.
KCB Group emerged as the top mover, with a turnover of KES 202.18 million from 2.91 million shares traded. Equity Group and Safaricom closely followed, recording turnovers of KES 189.33 million and KES 182.22 million, respectively.
Foreign investor activity declined to 38.0%, down from 45.1%, resulting in a net foreign outflow of KES 361.68 million, primarily affecting Safaricom and Equity Group.
In the secondary bonds market, turnover increased by 14.9%, rising from KES 10.16 billion to KES 11.68 billion, with the number of deals growing to 192.
Investment firm Pergamon reported that the most actively traded bond was FXD1/2019/10yr, which had a turnover of KES 2.79 billion.
The Central Bank of Kenya reopened two more bond issues: SDB1/2011/030 (14.9 years, 12.000% coupon) and FXD1/2026/030 (30 years, 12.500% coupon), targeting KES 20.0 billion from the market.
Furthermore, the CBK announced a switch of KES 20.00 billion from FXD1/2016/010 (0.3 years, 15.039% coupon), maturing on August 17, 2026, to FXD1/2018/015 (7.1 years, 12.650% coupon).
