The euro rallied sharply to a six-month high and is nearing 1.1250 versus the dollar after German Chancellor Angela Merkel was quoted by Bloomberg as saying:“The euro is too weak – and that’s because of ECB policy – and so German products are cheap in relative terms.”
The African Development Bank released an upbeat 2017 Economic Outlook predicting an acceleration in FY 17 GDP to 3.4% from 2.2% in 2016 and a further acceleration to 4.3% in FY 18.
Renaissance capital’s Yvonne Mhango predicts Kenya FY GDP growth will slow to 4% in 2017.
The equity market has been on a bit of roll of late and its bonafides are being confirmed by the number of shares hitting 2017 highs.
The Nairobi All Share rallied +0.98% to close at a fresh six and a half months high and is now +5.617% in 2017.
The Nairobi NSE20 rallied +40.81 points to close at 3298.16, a nine-month high.
Equity turnover clocked 711.952m.
Eaagads [which is a coffee pureplay] traded limit up to close at 24.00 +9.09%.
Safaricom was the most actively traded share at the exchange, and firmed +1.23% to close at 20.50 on brisk volume of 23.773m shares worth Sh487.338m. Safaricom is +7.04% in 2017 and underpins the rally in the All Share. I expect fresh all time highs in due course.
Nation Media firmed +1.82% to closed at a Fresh 2017 high of 112.00 and is now +20.43% in 2017. Like the Phoenix, Media stocks have risen from the ashes earlier in the year.
TPS Serena Hotels rallied +7.69% to close at 24.50.
Co-operative Bank rallied +2.64% to close at a fresh 2017 high of 17.45 and traded 549,700 shares. Co-op is +32.19% in 2017.
KCB Group firmed +0.66% to match an 11-month closing high of 37.75 and traded 764,400 shares. KCB is +31.3% in 2017 and has posted a monster rally of +57.29% since the End of January 2017 when it closed at a 2017 and multi-year Low.
Diamond Trust Bank firmed +0.74% to close at a Fresh 2017 high of 136.00 on light trading of 3,300 shares.
KenolKobil firmed +0.41% to close at 12.20 and saw good volume action of 7.751m shares worth 94.565m. Kenolkobil has lagged the Index this year and is -18.12% in 2017. We are at a floor here and on a PE of 7.43.
EABL ticked +0.43% higher to close at 233.00 and traded 224,000 shares. EABL will play catch up eventually.
KenGen closed a fresh 2017 closing high of 7.05 and is now +21.55% in 2017. PIC SA are certainly feeling rather pleased with their move onto the shareholder register at scale and at 6.65.
Aly-Khan is a financial analyst