Trade at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) slowed in the first hours after opening as investors adopted a watch-and-see attitude in view of nationwide protests by the opposition coalition.
A spot-check at the Nairobi bourse at 9.30 am showed minimal activities with no improvement on all indices which blinked red on Friday.
The Nairobi All Share Index (NASI) dropped to 102.96 points compared to 103.41 on Friday. Overall, the index has shed 3.5 per cent in past seven days.
The NSE20 which monitors the top 20 counters had shed two points by the time of going to press to stand at 1,528.36 points. The index has dropped 30 per cent in less than five days.
The NSE 25 on the other hand remained stagnant at 2,706, having dropped close to 90 per cent in the last seven days as the bear run persists.
Data by the Standard Investment Bank (SIB) shows NASI, NSE 20 and NSE 25 have shed 18.9 per cent, 8.7 per cent and 13.6 per cent year to date respectively.
The protests by the Azimio coalition against President William Ruto could further fuel negative trading witnessed on Friday as major stocks tumble as foreign investors exit to high-value markets.
Last week, investors at NSE lost Sh226.10 billion in paper wealth largely on bearish sentiment and a sell-off on Safaricom and KCB counters by foreign funds chasing higher returns in developed markets.
Market capitalisation — the value of all stocks on the Nairobi bourse— hit a fresh low of Sh1.61 trillion last Friday compared to Sh1.84 trillion the week before, representing a 53 per cent drop.
Financial experts link the 12.3 per cent fall to a considerable sell-off by foreign investors on the Safaricom counter amid the weakening shilling against the dollar.
Safaricom, which accounts for more than 50 per cent of trading at the Nairobi bourse saw its share price sink to Sh16.35 from Sh20.80 the previous week, causing investors at least a Sh170 billion loss in paper wealth.
On Monday, the telco's share gained 1.6 per cent to trade at Sh17.95. It is currently the most valuable stock on the NSE with a market capitalisation of Sh719 billion, which is about 43.1 percent of the entire equity market.
Despite the 9.7 per cent increase in share price yesterday, more foreign investors exited the counter, pushing the total outflow to close to $8 million or Sh1.12 billion.
Equity Bank recorded an outflow of $311 million (Sh40.1 billion) as its share price dropped 14.3 per cent on global banking crisis jitters.
Other counters which witnessed massive exits include BAT Kenya which recorded an outflow worth $235.6 million (Sh30.4 billion).
East Africa Breweries Limited recorded an outflow worth $93,50o despite its share strengthening by 0.4 per cent.
The global financial crisis has intensified the dollar shortage in the country, with a greenback going for as high as Sh145 in the parallel back market.
The shilling was trading at 130.21 against the dollar by the time of going to press.
Yesterday, top global central banks led by the Federal Reserve of the USA announced plans to ensure the supply of US dollars in the market.