Social security fund buys Sh3.3 billion NMB shares

Stockbrokers at work at DSE. PHOTO|FILE

Summary

• Sources said a foreign company sold the shares through prearranged transaction in which the two parties agree on price, normally at a discounted rate, outside the stock exchange.

By Josephine Christopher

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Dar es Salaam. A local social security fund boosted trading at the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange

(DSE) on Monday after buying NMB Bank shares worth Sh3.34 billion through block trading.

 Sources said a foreign company sold the shares through prearranged transaction in which the two parties agree on price, normally at a discounted rate, outside the stock exchange.

 The bourse reported that NMB counter traded a block of 2,372,044 shares on a block trade, and in a normal market board the lender had only 10 shares traded at a weighted average price of Sh2,240 per share in a single deal.

Brokers said the purchase of NMB shares by a local fund was a positive move to the market.

 “For a long time, the local pension funds have not bought the shares but it’s good to hear that they are coming back to the market,” said Juventus Simon, Orbit Securities’ general manager, a local brokerage firm.

“It’s a positive move to have the locals like this who are increasing local ownership but it’s bad if the foreign company was pulling out its money from Tanzania for some critical reasons. So it’s both good and cautiously bad,” said another broker who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The DSE recorded a total turn- over of Sh3.45 billion from the NMB block trading and other counters which together were traded in 43 deals, according to the DSE reports for Monday. Other active counters were CRDB Bank Plc, DCB, self-listed DSE, Jatu Plc, Nicol, and Vodacom Tanzania.

 CRDB counter had 68,230 shares traded at a weighted aver- age price of Sh215 per share in 28 deals. DCB counter had 40 shares traded at a weighted average price of Sh240 per share in a single deal.

DSE counter had 1,340 shares traded at weighted average price of Sh1,060 per share in one deal, while JATU counter had 300 shares traded at weighted average price of Sh1,700 per share in six deals.

Nicol counter on the other hand had 7,610 shares traded at weighted average price of Sh190 per share, while the Vodacom counter had 10 shares traded at weighted average price of Sh740 per share both in a single deal. In the bond segment of the market where the securities are traded in a secondary mar- ket, DSE recorded a turnover of Sh10.64 billion from bonds trad- ed in 10 deals.

A Seven-year bond with a coupon rate of 10.08 percent and a face value of Sh800 million was trad- ed in one deal. The 10-year bond with a coupon rate of 11.44 per- cent and a face value of Sh5.5 billion was traded in two deals.

 The market also traded a 15-year bond with a coupon rate of 13.5 percent and a face value of Sh10 million was traded in a single deal, while 20-year bond with a coupon rate of 15.49 percent and a face value of Sh3.75 billion  was traded in six deals.

“There was no activity in the Corporate Bonds segment,” DSE says.