International Markets remain on tenterhooks around the US-China tariff war.
Trump has become accomplished at gaming the markets especially on a Friday around the prospects of a deal. Sterling regained 1.30 Tuesday and is holding notwithstanding the fact that 3 conservative MPs have bailed on Prime Minister Theresa May.Even Bitcoin is staging a snap-back trading at $3,924 last.
Commodity markets have lifted gold to a more than 6 month high of $1,343.81. Soybeans, a proxy for the tariff war, have not got the memo.
Africa awaits the Nigerian elections and the South African Budget.
SouthAfrica's rand weakened heavily as Finance Minister #Mboweni announces a $4.9bn bailout for #Eskom,the biggest in the nation's history.
Egypt issued a $4bn eurobond, with almost $20bn of orders for the deal. The government will pay 6.2% for a $750m 5-year tranche; 7.6% for a $1.75bn 10-yr portion; and 8.7% for $1.5bn of 30-yr debt.
''Baba Go Slow'' has to be contrasted with President Al-Sisi's Egypt. Al-Sisi made bold moves in the economy. Egypt devalued its currency early, took a brutal punch in the solar plexus but is now reaping the dividend from its bolder economic policy
The Nairobi All Share produced its best start to the year since 2013 through Feb 6,rallying 14.12% before becoming overbought and has been in a corrective phase since then.
The Nairobi All Share corrected -0.66 points to close at 155.54 and is -2.94% below its 2019 closing high from February 6th.
The NSE20 closed -11.52 points at 3011.41.
Equity Turnover was 458.721m.
Commercial and Services
Safaricom PLC's #Fuliza overdraft service, has lent $70 million & recruited 5 million subscribers in 6 weeks, a very impressed senior banking source in Nairobi tells me. @cobbo3 Safaricom closed unchanged at 26.15 and traded 2.628m shares worth 68.82m. Safaricom is +17.79% in 2019.
Longhorn Kenya reported H1 Earnings where H1 Sales accelerated +35.856% to clock 687.565m, lifting 1 Profit before Tax +73.128% to 90.185m. H1 Cash & cash equivalents surged +691.45% to 92.627m [which is always a good signal]. Longhorn struck an optimistic note in the accompanying commentary:
1. Turnover increased by 36% - attributed to the growth of volumes in Kenya and the regional markets
2. successfully completed distribution of close to 500,000 copies of text books to public secondary schools across the country
3. Digital transformation strategy with has led to the repurposing of content in mobile platforms audio and video forms
4. continued growth in Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia
The Education Business is blowing red-hot and Longhorn is an interesting prospect. LongHorn rallied +5.27% to close at 5.39 and was trading at 5.50 +7.42% at the Finish Line.
Banks
Equity Bank eased -0.47% to close at 42.00 and traded 2.071m shares. Equity is +20.516% in 2019.
KCB Group corrected -2.22% to close at 41.70 and traded 1.123m shares. KCB is +11.348% in 2019.
Industrial and Allied
EABL eased -2.86% to close at 195.00 and traded 1.011m shares worth 197.311m. EABL is +11.58% in 2019 and released muscled up H1 Earnings at the end of January.
KenGen CEO has signalled that KenGen is likely to avail itself of the opportunity to issue a ''Green'' bond when its 10 yyear ''Infrastructure'' bond matures in October. KenGen rallied +2.96% to close at 6.59 and traded 147,200 shares. There were Buyers for 10x volume traded.