Kenya’s stock market is now one of the worst performing in the world, a Bloomberg report has stated.
This follows the stocks listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange extending a selloff that’s taken the main benchmark index to the steepest losses in the world.
“NSE’s all-share index posted the fourth consecutive quarter of decline in September, the longest stretch since 2017,” the Bloomberg has reported. “So far this year, Kenya’s stock benchmark has lost a quarter of its value, marking the worst performance among country indexes tracked by Bloomberg.”
An analyst told Bloomberg that the NSE would continue to take a hit. “We expect the equities market to take a hit especially given the rising interest rates environment that we’re in. We just expect to see net outflows,” the analyst, Wesley Manambo, a senior associate for research at Nairobi-based Standard Investment Bank Ltd, said.
Bloomberg highlighted the case of KCB Group Plc whose stock has been one of the hardest hit.
Properties owned by Akothee that are worth hundreds of millions
“Bad loans at the bank have hurt investor confidence. Kenya’s debt burden has also become a focal point for investors as the country faces skyrocketing energy and food import bills, as well as low foreign-exchange reserves,” added Bloomberg.
Latest data from the market shows that in the month of September alone, foreign investors sold of shares worth Sh. 1.1 billion. This was the continuation of a trend of net sell offs by foreign investors that has dominated the year, leave for the months of June and August when foreign investors were net buyers.
From January 2023, foreign investors have dumped shares worth Sh. 18.7 billion at the NSE. The biggest sell off was in the month of March 2023 when these investors sold off shares worth Sh. 10.6 billion.
These huge sell offs have also been singled out as a reason for the continued deterioration of the local market whose 20-Share Index has lost 9.9 per cent in the year to date. At the same time, the All Share Index has lost 25.2 per cent in the year to date.
