Kenya’s capital markets started the year well, with all indices at the Nairobi Securities Exchange blinking green.
Money market funds have grown considerably, driven by increased awareness, favourable returns, and government efforts to support financial inclusion.
Bonds and Treasury bills registered the highest turnover in the week to February 6.
A weekly market bulletin by the Central Bank shows investors’ paper wealth at the Nairobi bourse increased by Sh24 billion.
Market capitalisation rose to Sh2.04 trillion up from Sh2.018 trillion the previous week.
Total shares traded increased by 62.5 per cent to 190.83 million shares compared to 117.4 million shares the previous week, pushing total equity turnover by close to 50 per cent.
The NASI, NSE 25 and NSE 20 share price indices increased by 1.2 percent, 0.5 percent and 0.3 per cent respectively.
East Africa Portland Cement was the biggest gainer, closing the week at Sh30.45, rising 9.34 per cent.
The share is expected to attract more investors this week as shareholders gear towards a first dividend payout in 13 years.
Last year, the firm announced it was the selling part of its assets to facilitate the payment.
Centum Investment, Home Afrika and Uchumi were among the top five gainers for the week.
Even so, market analysts are tipping banking stocks to perform better as they prepare to unveil end-offinancial-year results in March.
Although rates on Treasury bills continue to drop, they attracted the highest bids after the Central Bank further lowered the base lending rate by 50 basis points to 10.75 per cent.
Bids worth Sh71.2 billion were received against an advertised amount of Sh24 billion