Foreign investors sell Ksh.1.6 billion NSE stocks in August

Foreign investors have remained net sellers at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) having disposed stocks worth Ksh.1.6 billion across August.

The investors bought stocks worth Ksh.1.85 billion in the month against sales of Ksh.3.5 billion to end in a Ksh.1.6 billion net selling position in the period.

The sell-offs in the month coincided with the staging of the August 9 General Elections but were softer than July’s Ksh.3 billion sell-offs to mirror market resilience.

The investors have remained net sellers for the majority of 2022 with the only net inflows coming in the month of February.

The sell-offs have been driven by uncertainties beyond the staging of the presidential elections including high inflation and rising interest rates off the back of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

In the year to date, the foreign investors have disposed of stocks worth Ksh.17.2 billion; this to leave the performance of the NSE in negative territory.

Across August, NSE’s market capitalization fell by Ksh.52 billion to Ksh.2.142 trillion.

NSE indexes nevertheless registered mixed performances in the month as the NSE 25 Share Index gained by 2.9 per cent as the NSE 20 and the All Share Index (NASI) registered dips of 0.6 and 2.5 per cent respectively.

Across the year, NASI is just shy of the bear territory mark with a negative return of 17.4 per cent while NSE 20 and NSE 25 have posted negative returns of 8 and 13.1 per cent respectively.

NSE market cap has fallen by an estimated Ksh.451 billion since the beginning of 2022.