Foreign investors turn net sellers for top NSE counters

Nairobi Securities Exchange during charity trading day last week. The bourse has lost billions of shillings (David Njaaga, standard)

NAIROBI, KENYA; The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) shed Sh52 billion of investors wealth in the week closing last Friday as foreign investors turned net sellers for top movers.

Daily trading data shows the floor closed at a market capitalisation of Sh2.36 trillion compared to the previous week’s Sh2.4 billion.

This translated to a combined unrealised losses of Sh52 billion. Top counters - Safaricom, East African Breweries, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) and Equity saw foreign investors offload shares worth over Sh500 million in one week.

Safaricom alone, whose share fell by 3.92 per cent during the week, saw foreign investors sell shares worth Sh1.33 billion.

However, during the five trading sessions, they also bought shares worth Sh796 million, leaving it in net selling position of shares valued at Sh535 million. On Tuesday last week, Safaricom was the day’s main feature with 34.9 million shares valued at Sh857 million changing hands at between Sh24.25 and Sh25.

This represented 77.2 of the day’s traded value. On that day, foreign investors sold shares worth Sh824.2 million.

Financial results

In the same week, a price correction of Sh1 per share on Safaricom following release of financial results plunged investors into unactualised loss of Sh20 billion.

KCB, the largest bank by asset base saw foreigners sell shares worth Sh143.8 million against buys worth Sh75.5 billion - translating to net sale of shares worth Sh68.4 million during the week.

Other top movers during the week who experienced huge net sales from foreigner investors include EABL (Sh17.1 million) and KenGen which had net foreign sales worth Sh21.5 million.

Of the top active counters during the week, only Equity Bank had more foreigners buying than selling. It closed the week with net buys worth Sh142.2 million. On Tuesday and Friday, foreignersbought shares worth Sh340.7 million.

Foreign investors have been registering mixed signals at the bourse since the Supreme Court annulled the August 8 presidential elections - plunging the country into unchartered waters.

On September 2, they made Sh1.4 billion panic sales especially on Safaricom, Equity and EABL.

Ahead of another showdown at the apex court, activities on the bourse will come under focus.

Since the top 20 stocks hit a high of 4,114.01 in mid-August, the index fell to 3,541 points before starting to rise.