Malawi kwacha stabilises at K328/dollar: Annual results push up companies share prices
Billions of kwachas posted as profits by Illovo and National Bank of Malawi (NBM) has seen an impact this week at the Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE) where the two companies shares registered notable share price increases.
Illovo shares gained K5.50 each to sell at K175.50 from K170, NBM share value increased by K2 each from K65 to K67.
Other counters that experienced upward movement of share prices were TNM from K1.16 to K1.25 and NBS from K7 to K7.12.
In total the market recorded trading activity in 7 counters and others are Malawi Property Investment Company (Mpico), Real Insurance and National Investment Trust Limited (Nitl).
As a result of share price gains, the stock exchange’s major market indicator, the Malawi All Share Index (Masi) inched upwards by 138.55 points to close the week at 6552.53 points due to an increase in the Domestic Share Index by 110.60 points from 5020.37 points to 5130.97 points.
A full amount of 147,384,527 shares were transacted during the week at a total consideration of K183,583,740.00 (US$558,845.09) in 20 deals.
On the foreign exchange market, the Malawi Kwacha managed to hold against the US dollar for a second week running at K328 per dollar, a development analysts say is due to the ongoing tobacco selling season whose trade is done in dollar plus the massive disbursements of foreign aid by donors.
On the money market, at the auction held on May 28, the average yield on the 91 days T-Bill, the 182 days T-Bill and the 364 days T-Bill increased by 1.40% from 31.98% to 33.38%, 2.83% from 32.23% to 35.06% and 1.76% from 35.87% to 37.63% respectively.
This resulted in K5 billion being raised against an announced amount of K5 billion. 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.
Treasury Bills maturities during the week ended 31 May, 2013 amounted to K2.4 billion and maturities for the week ending June 7, 2013 stand at K1.3 billion.
