Markets Retreat After Post-Poll Lift

 

By Kepha Muiruri

The performance of the markets retreated on Wednesday after back-to-back days of gains off Monday’s validation of the August 9 Presidential Results by the Supreme Court which signalled the end of the electioneering period.

Investor wealth represented by the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) market capitalization fell by Ksh.50 billion after combined gains of Ksh.144 billion on Monday and Tuesday.

The NSE All Share Index (NASI) was down by 3.22 points on Wednesday’s session while the NSE-25 index retreated by 45.79 points to 3387.26 points.

Meanwhile, the NSE 20 Share Index was unchanged to close the session at 1807.36 points.

Equities market turnover recorded an intra-day decrease of 22.9 per cent to Ksh.260.5 million from Ksh.337.8 million.

This is as the number of shares traded fell to 10.6 million from 14.1 million traded shares on Tuesday.

Foreign investors were sellers in the session recording net outflows of Ksh.51 million.

The retreating of markets widely signals the end of immediate investor reactions to the upholding of the Presidential Elections results by the Supreme Court.

The upholding of the results marked the end of uncertainty on the potential for a protracted electioneering period.

The performance of the NSE had remained lack-lustre for most of the year partly from expectations of a slowdown occasioned by the staging of General Elections in August.

The year-to-date performance (YTD) for the NASI and NSE 20 indexes stands at losses of 13.46 and five per cent respectively.