Foreign Exchange Reserves
The usable foreign exchange reserves stood at USD 7,017 million (3.80 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 depreciated against the Dollar and the Sterling Pound but appreciated against the Euro to exchange at KES 160.62, KES 204.23 and KES 174.43 respectively. The observed depreciation against the Dollar is attributed to a high demand from general importers.
Currency | YTD Change | W-o-W Change |
---|---|---|
Dollar | 2.31% | 0.17% |
Sterling Pound | 2.19% | 0.30% |
Euro | 0.45% | -0.02% |
Liquidity
Liquidity in the money markets increased, with the average inter-bank rate decreasing from 13.76% to 13.66%, as government payments more than offset tax remittances. Open market operations remained active.
Liquidity | Week (previous) | Week (ending) |
---|---|---|
Interbank rate | 13.76% | 13.66% |
Interbank volume (billion) | 13.88 | 18.81 |
Commercial banks’ excess reserves (billion) | 19.60 | 26.90 |
Fixed Income
T-Bills
T-Bills remained over-subscribed during the week, with the overall subscription rate decreasing to 101.97%, down from 146.99% recorded in the previous week. The 91-day T-Bill received the highest subscription rate at 413.96% while the 182-day T-Bill and 364-day T-Bill had subscription rates of 52.43% and 26.72% respectively. The acceptance rate decreased by 7.49% to close the week at 89.53%.
T-Bonds
In the secondary bond market, there was a higher demand for the week’s bond offers. Bond turnover increased by 10.84%, from KES 17.36 billion in the previous week to KES 19.24 billion. Total bond deals increased by 8.42% from 546 in the previous week to 592.
In the primary bond market, CBK issued a new 8.5-year infrastructure bond, IFB1/2024/8.5, seeking KES 70 billion. The new bond coupon rate will be market-determined. The sale runs from 24/01/2024 to 14/02/2024.
Eurobonds
In the international market, yields on Kenya’s Eurobonds increased by an average of 0.22% compared to the previous week, 0.40% month-to-date and 0.40% year-to-date. The yields on the 10-year Eurobonds for Angola declined while that of Zambia increased. Below is a summary analysis of performance for individual bonds.
Bond | YTD Change | M-o-M Change | W-o-W Change |
---|---|---|---|
2014 10-Year Issue | 0.14% | 0.14% | 0.00% |
2018 10-Year Issue | 0.41% | 0.41% | 0.26% |
2018 30-Year Issue | 0.27% | 0.27% | 0.14% |
2019 7-Year Issue | 0.89% | 0.89% | 0.50% |
2019 12-Year Issue | 0.39% | 0.39% | 0.24% |
2021 13-Year Issue | 0.31% | 0.31% | 0.20% |
Equities
NASI, NSE 20, NSE 25 and NSE 10 settled 3.21%, 1.24%, 2.41% and 2.72% lower compared to the previous week, bringing the year-to-date performance to -1.74%, -0.72%, -0.69% and -1.10% respectively. Market capitalization also lost 3.21% from the previous week to close at KES 1.41 trillion, recording a year-to-date decrease of 1.74%. The performance was driven by losses recorded by large-cap stocks such as EABL, Safaricom and KCB of 11.44%, 6.09% and 5.99% respectively. This was however mitigated by the gain recorded by Co-operative Bank of 5.73%.
The Banking sector had shares worth KES 390.6M transacted which accounted for 71.27% of the week’s traded value, Manufacturing and Allied sector had shares worth KES 17M transacted which represented 20.60% and Safaricom, with shares worth KES 112.9M transacted represented 20.60% of the week’s traded value.
Top Gainers and Losers in the Equities Markets
Top Gainers | YTD Change | W-o-W |
---|---|---|
Car & General | 8.00% | 8.00% |
Bamburi | 11.11% | 7.82% |
Coop-Bank | 5.73% | 5.73% |
Transcentury | -9.62% | 4.44% |
Sameer | -7.05% | 3.94% |
Losers | YTD Change | W-o-W |
---|---|---|
EA Breweries | 2.16% | -11.44% |
TP Serena | -7.08% | -7.93% |
Sanlam | 17.00% | -7.63% |
Britam | 12.90% | -7.27% |
Safaricom | -4.73% | -6.09% |
Alternative Investments
Losers | Week (previous) | Week (ending) | % Change |
---|---|---|---|
Derivatives Turnover (million) | 1.37 | 2.23 | 62.35% |
Derivatives Contracts | 14.00 | 51.00 | 264.29% |
I-REIT Turnover (million) | 0.02 | 0.22 | 1,027.14% |
I-REIT deals | 9.00 | 15.00 | 66.67% |
Global and Regional Markets
Global Markets | YTD Change | W-o-W |
---|---|---|
S&P 500 | 3.12% | 1.06% |
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) | 1.05% | 0.65% |
FTSE 100 (FTSE) | -1.12% | 2.32% |
STOXX Europe 600 | 1.11% | 3.11% |
Shanghai Composite (SSEC) | -1.76% | 2.75% |
MSCI Emerging Markets Index | -3.86% | -1.12% |
MSCI World Index | 1.48% | 1.29% |
Continental Markets | YTD Change | W-o-W |
---|---|---|
FTSE ASEA Pan African Index | 5.47% | 1.09% |
JSE All Share | -1.03% | 3.43% |
NSE All Share (NGSE) | 34.76% | 8.32% |
DSEI (Tanzania) | -3.46% | -2.28% |
ALSIUG (Uganda) | 0.00% | 0.11% |
The US stock market closed the week in the green zone, buoyed by investor optimism following positive corporate earnings and lower-than-expected annual core personal consumption expenditures index (PCE), which fell slightly below the 3% forecast. Inflation is expected to decline even further, as investors look forward to the Federal Reserve meeting slated at the end of this month.
The European stocks closed the week on an upward trajectory, fueled by a surge in heavy-weight luxury stocks in Paris, particularly LVMH’s impressive end-year results. Furthermore, investors optimism was boosted by the European Central Banks’s dovish signals during its recent meeting.
The Asian stock market closed the week on a positive trend, buoyed by China’s surprise Reserve Requirement Ratio (RRR) cut and fresh policy pledges. Beijing unveiled a 50-basis-point RRR reduction, injecting 1 trillion Yuan into the economy and signalling its commitment to economic and market stability.
Week’s Highlights
Get future reports
Please provide your details below to get future reports: