Businesses remain shut as private sector suffers election blues

Some of the ever busy joints,streets and banks in Nairobi CBD remained closed a day after the general elections Photo by WILLIS AWANDU

SUMMARY

• Forecast. Analysts expect economy to grow more during the year
• Trading at NSE dropped 30pc on Wednesday but key indices went up marginally.

NAIROBI, KENYA: Businesses have yet to shake off election blues as the volume of shares traded at the Nairobi Securities Exchange declined.

Many companies remain closed with an eye on the aftermath of the Tuesday polls.

Trading at the stock market went down, with the volume of shares traded on Wednesday going down by about 30 per cent while the value declined 45 per cent to Sh16 million from the previous session. This was a marginal decline but one that sustained a trend seen on Monday, when turnover was down 60 per cent compared to Friday's trading.

"The bourse resumed trading after the General Election break with a total 7.7 million shares valued at Sh166 million transacted, down from 10.3 million shares that were valued at Sh302 million posted on Monday," said NSE in its daily market report.

While there was a general decline, the market indices made gains - an indicator that the bourse will pick its bull run seen over the recent months once the elections are settled.

According to the report, the NSE 20 Share Index was up 31.86 points to stand at 3850.13, the All Share Index ended 1.71 points or 1.08 per cent higher to stand at 160.54 while the NSE 25 Share Index added 48.68 points or 1.15 per cent to stand at 4287.73.

The stock market has been on a rally since the beginning of the year, growing 21 per cent, with investors seemingly defying the elections that have been hovering over most of the other economic sectors and players adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

According to analysts from Cytonn Investments, there still remains room for more growth for the remainder of the year and most of the stocks are expected to be on an upward trend.

"Asset valuations remain increasingly low and attractive for investment. It is expected that the markets will continue to rally, with asset valuations rising further," said Cytonn earlier this week.

At the same time, many businesses remained closed in Nairobi yesterday with only a handful resuming work after the General Election break in a trend that is likely to persist for the rest of the week.