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Analysts say the bourse could see a period of stabilisation in coming days

Tuesday, July 14th, 2020 12:00 | By

PD Reporter and agencies

The shilling dipped slightly against the dollar yesterday on demand from merchandise importers on the back of phased easing of cessation of movement. 

Banks quoted the shilling yesterday at 107.10/30 per dollar, compared with 107.00/20 at last week’s close.

The development comes even as the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) stocks hit a three-month low of Sh2 trillion last Friday compared to Sh2.1 trillion last month.

Analysts have divided opinion, linking the dip to foreign investors’ reduced interest, saying traders are keenly follow the behaviour of the likes of East African Breweries and Safaricom and the lenders.

Heavy lifting

“The NSE has repriced lower dramatically in 2020 with only Safaricom doing the heavy lifting. At this juncture, I am unable to discern a meaningful rebound.

We could see a period of stabilisation because valuations are now very inexpensive,” said Aly Khan Satchu.

Churchill Ogutu, Head of Research at Genghis Capital said apart from Scangroup which jumped from Sh17 to Sh22 on account of special dividends, there was no clear signal last week showing much excitement after pahsed reopening of economy.

“However, Safaricom, Equity, EABL have been trading a lot” Ogutu said.

Overall, Satchu said, Kenya is in a Catch-22, much like the entire continent with an economy which has come to a stand still.

“The virus is not correlated to endogenous market dynamics but is an exogenous uncertainty that remains unresolved and we are re-opening the economy at precisely the moment the virus is set to find “escape velocity’’, said Satchu.

“We are now navigating a path in what are treacherous waters. The last few months have been the bow wave. The shock wave is in front of us,” he said.

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