Kenyan Market Weekly Update

Equity turnover at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) hit $ 34.4 million at the end of the week ending 18^th October 2019 compared to $ 13.4 million the previous week. Foreign investors remained net sellers for the week, with a net selling position of $ 8.5 million, from a net selling position of $ 0.4 million the previous week. The activity was majorly driven by the banking sector.

During the week, NASI, NSE 20 and NSE 25 gained by 0.5%, 0.2% and 1.5%, respectively. The performance in NASI was driven by gains recorded by stocks in the Banking sector with NIC Group, I&M Holdings, Equity Group and KCB Group recording gains of 10.2%, 6.3%, 5.3% and 3.5%, respectively. This excitement in the banking counters arose as news filtered that President Uhuru Kenyatta had sent the Financial Bill 2019 back to parliament after refusing to repeal the Rates Cap law.

NSE Updates Issuer Codes

Activity at the NSE was up when the bourse updated issuer codes for select counters. This is to reflect counters which changed either changed their corporate identities or changed names after either a merger or acquisition. The NSE said renaming the counter was meant to create standard identification system for issuers and unable easy identification by investors at the bourse.

Car& General Plc which had the code C&G has changed it to CGEN while I&M Holdings Plc has changed from I&M to IMH. Stanbic Holdings Plc has changed its codes from CFC to SBIC while Sameer Africa Plc has changed its codes from FIRE to SMER. Crown Paints Kenya Plc has moved from BERG to CRWN, Liberty Kenya Holdings Limited from CFCI to LBTY and Sanlam Kenya Plc from PAFR to SLAM.

Centum Investment Co Plc has changed its identity codes from ICDC to CTUM and NIC Group Plc from NIC to NCBA.

Central Bank of Kenya Weekly Report

In its weekly bulletin, the Central Bank of Kenya quoted the local unit as remaining stable against major international and regional currencies during the period ending October 17. The Kenya Shilling exchanged at Sh103.71 per US Dollar on October 17, compared to Sh 103.78 on October 9, 2019.

CBK reports that the money market was liquid during the week ending October 17, mainly due to government payments and net redemption of government securities. The open market operations remained active. Commercial banks’ excess reserves stood at Sh 16.4 billion in relation to the 5.25 per cent cash reserves requirement (CRR).

The average interbank rate increased to 7.59 percent on October 17 from 7.11 percent on October 9. The average number of interbank deals per day decreased to 13 from 17 the previous week, while the value traded decreased to Sh 5.5 billion from Sh 5.7 billion.

Uncertainties in the global financial markets remained during the week. The IMF revised downwards its global growth forecast for 2019, mainly due to slowdown in global trade and erosion of business confidence attributed to trade tensions and geopolitical risks. The UK and EU reached an agreement on a new Brexit deal on October 17, but uncertainties remain over support for the deal in the UK Parliament.

International oil prices increased slightly during the week partly due to optimism for a trade deal between the US and China, and postponement by the US of the planned hike in duties on at least US$ 250 billion Chinese goods. The Murban oil prices rose to$ 61.22 per barrel on October 17, from US$ 59.75 per barrel on October 10 .

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