Millions of shares traded on Malawi Stock Exchange
There were substantial transactions last week at the Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE) as the market recorded trading activity in 10 counters leading to the trading of 16.1 million shares.
According to the MSE Weekly Update counters that recorded trading were Firs Merchant Bank, Illovo, Mpico, National Bank of Malawi, NBS Bank, Nico, National Investment Trust Limited, Standard Bank, TNM and Old
Mutual.
“A total of 16,123,527 shares were transacted during the week at a total consideration of K169,426,389.76 (US$511,177.29) in 33 deals. The Malawi All Share Index inched upwards by 151.67 points to close the week at 7277.08 points due to an increase in both the Domestic Share Index and the Foreign Share Index by 109.91 points from 5586.62 points to 5696.53 points and by 124.43 points from 1132.44 points to 1256.86 points respectively,” said MSE.
The rise in indices was as a result of share price gains in FMB by K0.04 from K8.50 to K8.54, NBM by K0.68 from K69.32 to K70, NITL by K1.46 from K17.54 to K19, Standard Bank by K6 from K166 to K172 and Old Mutual by K99 from K901 to K1,000.
Financial market analysis company, NBM Capital said the bourse continued with its bullish momentum, with price upswings mainly driven by demand, as a demand – supply mismatch is characterising most counters.
“However, we are upbeat that the record high prices may start to stimulate some supply on the counters,” said NBM Capital.
On the money market, the company said the financial system closed the review with about K18 billion as excess liquidity, above the K41 billion required reserves.
“Consequently, there were no discount window activities in the review week, due to improved interbank activity. The primary Treasury Bills market of the July 23, 2013 was also affected, as it recorded a 2.6 times oversubscription as K5.2 billion was applied against K2 billion announced. K2 billion was allotted which translated into about 60
percent reject rate,” NBM Capital said.
Treasury Bills maturities during the week ended July 26 amounted to K938 million and maturities for the week ending August 2 stand at K2.1 billion. Malawi’s Treasury Bills are open to foreign investors and both the capital and interest are remittal after deduction of withholding tax on interest currently at 15 percent.
