Equity market commentary

The NSE 20 Index touched a new 2015 low of 4,773.79 points – just 0.2 per cent above 2014’s low. NASI notched 0.5 per cent higher with large caps helping in the performance. With one less trading day in the week due to a holiday, equity turnover slumped 51.8 per cent to $30.1m (Sh2.91 billion) versus $62.5m  (Sh6.07 billion) recorded previously.

Breaking their six week trend, foreign investors turned net buyers recording a net inflow of $2.1m (Sh194 million) compared to an outflow of $2.9m (Sh281 million) in the previous week. BAT recorded the highest foreign net outflow at $1.6m. The cigarette maker shed 6.7 per cent. Within the week, leaf tobacco merchant, Alliance One International, announced that it started scaling down its local operations citing a poor global outlook for the tobacco industry. It is not clear at this point whether some of the capacity gap left will benefit BAT. KCB had the highest foreign net inflows of $1.4m (Sh135.8 million)  and inched up 4.4 per cent. Despite recording foreign net outflows for the seventh consecutive week, Safaricom edged up 3.2 per cent with local demand helping. EABL notched five cent higher on sustained foreign investor trading. Agricultural companies Kakuzi and Sasini edged up 8.8 per cent and 3.9 per cent higher on thin volumes.