The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has released its quarterly (Q1 2018) capital markets statistical bulletin which shows market capitalisation increased 55.62 percent to Sh2,817.36 billion compared to Sh1,810.39 billion in Q1 2017.
Equity turnover also increased from Sh37.11 billion recorded in the previous quarter to Sh61.15 billion in Q1 2018 indicating rising participation of investors at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). The growth is partly attributed to increase in trade volumes which grew from Sh1,860.81 million in Q1 2017 to Sh2,138.39 million in Q1 2018.
In the first quarter of 2018, there no equity Initial Public Offering launched and there were no rights issues approved. In addition, there were no listings by introduction, no additional offers, no stock splits, no suspensions, and no de-listings.
There were two bonus issues during the period under review by NIC Bank and HFCK. The last stock split was carried out by Kenya Airways in November 2017.
According to the CMA report, Safaricom is leading in terms of market capitalisation at an average of Sh1,205.30 billion followed by EABL (Sh199.28 billion), Equity (Sh177.36 billion), KCB Sh147.68 billion), Co-op Bank (Sh105.80 billion) and KQ (Sh78.02 billion).
The top listed companies by equity turnover are Safaricom , Equity, KenolKobil, KCB, and EABL with an average of Sh5,845.17 million, Sh3,235.72 million, Sh3,073.08 million, Sh2,665.89 million, and Sh1,253.55 million. The total market turnover Sh20,340.19 million (Jan 2018), Sh17,919.89 million (Feb 2018), and Sh22,890.17 million (March 2018.)
The top companies by average liquidity are KenolKobil (13.45 percent), Carbacid (2.35 percent), KCB (1.78 percent), Equity (1.77 percent), and Unga (1.65 percent.)
Performance in the Bond Market
In the review period, Sh147.36 billion worth of bonds were traded compared to Sh105.27 billion in the same period last year. The main bond market performance indicators include Treasury bond turnover (Sh146.86 billion) and corporate bond turn over (Sh0.50 billion.)
Government bonds issued during the review period were worth Sh37.55 billion, Sh62.72 billion, Sh46.60 billion in January, February, and March respectively. Additionally, corporate bonds issued during the same period were worth Sh0.03 billion, Sh0.32 billion, and Sh0.14 billion.
Investor Profiles
Local equity and bonds individual investors at the bourse are the most at 1,184,231 and 3,816 in that order.
In light of the quarter’s performance, Luke Ombara, Director regulatory and strategy stated in the report: “Outlook for quarter three and beyond is upbeat, as implementation of the Government’s Big 4 Agenda gathers momentum, with the capital markets positioning itself to play a major contributing role towards its realization, over the next five years.”
