Andy Warhol famously said: ''The world fascinates me'' and I have to admit the international markets are trading in an extreme manner.
The teflon shilling traded at a fresh 5.5-month high around 101.70. There are not many African currencies that have gained. The shilling is fully convertible to boot.
Today you cannot convert naira into dollars, there is talk that Angola has all but banned imports and the pain continues over vast swathes of sub-Saharan Africa.
The catalysts for this teflon showing by the shilling is all about the non-linear collapse in the price of oil [sharply improving our current account deficit), the central banker's credentials which are rock solid and a sensible hand at the Treasury.
The markets are the message and emitting a positive signal.
The Nairobi All Share eased back 0.53% to close at 140.88. The All Share is -3.30% in 2016 comfortably outpacing its SSA peers which were as follows yesterday morning; South Africa All Share -4.63%, Egypt -14.30% and Nigeria -16.27% year-to-date.
The Nairobi NSE20 index shaved off 2.49 points to close at 3851.07.
Equity turnover clocked 302.659m and this was therefore a light trading session.
Commercial and Services
Nation Media was the most actively traded share at the bourse and closed unchanged at 180.00.
Kenya Airways’ board has appointed consulting firm Deloitte to undertake a forensic audit of the airline’s financial decisions dating back six years. It closed unchanged at 4.45. Over the weekend, someone reminded me that in the bull market the price reached 147.00.
Safaricom eased back -1.5625% to close at 15.75 and traded 3.232m shares. Safaricom has backed off a 2016 closing high of 16.70 reached on February 3. This level will be tested again before the month ends.
Banks
COOP Bank firmed +1.76% to close at 17.30 and traded 179,700 shares. The supply side is thin.
KCB edged -0.63% easier to close at 39.75 and traded 929,500 shares.
Equity Group had three buyers for every seller through the trading session and firmed +1.25% to close at 40.50.
Jubilee Insurance has seen sharpened volume action in 2016 and traded 100,000 shares. Jubilee is one of the few insurance Companies that has not issued a full year profits warning and this primarily because they are typically under-sized at the securities Exchange. Jubilee is -2.666% in 2016.
CIC Insurance firmed +1.67% to close at 6.10
Industrial and Allied
EABL missed closing at a fresh four-week high by the smallest of fractions. The weighted average closing price was 279.92 which is rounded down to 279.00 which meant EABL closed unchanged. EABL is +6.488% since issuing its first half earnings.
Bamburi Cement firmed +1.704% to close at 179.00 and traded 4,400 shares. Bamburi Cement stated around February 2 that it had earned Sh1bn ($9.8m) from supply of cement to the standard gauge railway contractor, China Road and Bridges Corp.
Trans-Century closed at a fresh all time low of 6.20. Trans-Century is -24.84% in 2016.