Foreign Exchange Reserves
The usable foreign exchange reserves stood at USD 7,221 million (3.90 months of import cover). This falls short of CBK’s statutory requirement to endeavour to maintain at least 4.0 months of import cover as well as the EAC region’s convergence criteria of 4.5 months of import cover.
Currency
The Kenyan Shilling appreciated against the Dollar, the Sterling Pound and the Euro to exchange at KES 144.06, KES 181.75 and KES 155.73 respectively. The observed appreciation against the Dollar is attributed to improved diaspora remittances and tourism inflows.
Currency | YTD Change | W-o-W Change |
---|---|---|
Dollar | -8.24% | -1.23% |
Sterling Pound | -9.06% | -0.97% |
Euro | -10.32% | -0.78% |
Liquidity
Liquidity in the money markets tightened, with the average inter-bank rate increasing from 13.42% to 14.04%, as tax remittances more than offset government payments. Open market operations remained active.
Liquidity | Week (previous) | Week (ending) |
---|---|---|
Interbank rate | 13.42% | 14.04% |
Interbank volume (billion) | 40.53 | 23.62 |
Commercial banks’ excess reserves (billion) | 27.30 | 37.40 |
Fixed Income
T-Bills
T-Bills remained over-subscribed during the week, with the overall subscription rate decreasing to 154.06%, down from 177.79% recorded in the previous week. The 91-day T-Bill received the highest subscription rate at 247.57% while the 182-day T-Bill and 364-day T-Bill had subscription rates of 74.21% and 196.51% respectively. The acceptance rate decreased by 32.81% to close the week at 62.43%.
T-Bonds
In the secondary bond market, there was a higher demand for the week’s bond offers. Bond turnover increased by 609.5%, from KES 24.03 billion in the previous week to KES 170.5 billion. Total bond deals also increased by 258.93% from 336 in the previous week to 1,206.
Eurobonds
In the international market, yields on Kenya’s Eurobonds decreased by an average of 0.12% compared to the previous week, 0.82% month-to-date and 0.24% year-to-date. The yields on the 10-year Eurobonds for Angola and Zambia also decreased. Below is a summary analysis of performance for individual bonds.
Bond | YTD Change | M-o-M Change | W-o-W Change |
---|---|---|---|
2018 10-Year Issue | -0.44% | -1.18% | -0.07% |
2018 30-Year Issue | 0.16% | -0.27% | -0.08% |
2019 7-Year Issue | -1.01% | -2.20% | -0.18% |
2019 12-Year Issue | 0.03% | -0.58% | -0.13% |
2021 13-Year Issue | 0.25% | -0.30% | -0.04% |
2024 6-Year Issue | -0.42% | -0.42% | -0.19% |
Equities
NASI, NSE 20, NSE 25 and NSE 10 settled 1.92%, 1.00%, 3.06% and 3.40% higher compared to the previous week, bringing the year-to-date performance to 0.94%, 1.85%, 3.71% and 3.83% respectively. Market capitalization also gained 1.93% from the previous week to close at KES 1.45 trillion, recording a year-to-date increase of 0.94%. The performance was driven by gains recorded by large-cap stocks such as Equity, Co-operative Bank, NCBA, KCB and Safaricom of 8.04%, 6.61%, 3.58%, 3.27% and 2.29% respectively. This was however weighed down by the loss recorded by EABL of 3.38%.
The Banking sector had shares worth KES 835M transacted which accounted for 67.18% of the week’s traded value, Manufacturing and Allied sector had shares worth KES 16.5M transacted which represented 1.33% and Safaricom, with shares worth KES 353.6M transacted represented 28.43% of the week’s traded value.
Top Gainers and Losers in the Equities Markets
Top Gainers | YTD Change | W-o-W |
---|---|---|
Eveready | 16.95% | 11.29% |
I&M Holdings | 8.02% | 8.65% |
Equity | 19.88% | 8.04% |
East African Cables | -2.04% | 7.87% |
HF Group | 20.00% | 6.98% |
Losers | YTD Change | W-o-W |
---|---|---|
BK Group | -9.44% | -13.11% |
Standard Group | -11.63% | -10.00% |
Unga Limited | -8.31% | -9.65% |
Crown Paints | 4.29% | -8.75% |
BOC Kenya | -8.54% | -8.54% |
Alternative Investments
Losers | Week (previous) | Week (ending) | % Change |
---|---|---|---|
Derivatives Turnover (million) | 1.20 | 1.80 | 50.09% |
Derivatives Contracts | 23.00 | 16.00 | -30.03% |
I-REIT Turnover (million) | 0.00 | 0.00 | -100% |
I-REIT deals | 00.00 | 00.00 | -100% |
Global and Regional Markets
Global Markets | YTD Change | W-o-W |
---|---|---|
S&P 500 | 7.29% | 1.66% |
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) | 3.76% | 1.30% |
FTSE 100 (FTSE) | -0.54% | -0.42% |
STOXX Europe 600 | 3.58% | 0.83% |
Shanghai Composite (SSEC) | -0.50% | 3.88% |
MSCI Emerging Markets Index | -0.00% | 0.83% |
MSCI World Index | 5.24% | 1.53% |
Continental Markets | YTD Change | W-o-W |
---|---|---|
FTSE ASEA Pan African Index | -2.29% | 0.90% |
JSE All Share | -3.16% | -0.01% |
NSE All Share (NGSE) | 34.23% | -3.52% |
DSEI (Tanzania) | 0.10% | -0.07% |
ALSIUG (Uganda) | 4.91% | 2.45% |
The US stock market ended the week in the green amid waning optimism for aggressive Federal Reserve rate cuts this year, buoyed by Nvidia gains which propelled the chipmaker to add stock market value by $277 billion. This made S&P 500 become the first ETF to top $500 billion in assets.
European stocks recorded a mixed performance during the week as Nvidia’s blockbuster quarterly report boosted global sentiment. However, data showing that Germany’s GDP fell 0.3% in the fourth quarter after stagnating for two quarters fueled recession woes. Additionally, new survey data from GfK showed that UK’s consumer confidence declined in February, an indication that inflation continues to weigh down optimism on economic recovery.
Asia Pacific Stocks also recorded a mixed performance, fueled by concerns over higher-for-longer interest rates. Japanese markets stocks recorded gains ahead of key inflation data. Investor sentiment was also weighed down by U.S inflation and interest rates.
Week’s Highlights
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