USE records drop in turnover during the week

By Our Reporter

The Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) market turnover fell to Ushs 871.71 million this week from Ushs 3.37 billion last week as the bourse registered less activity.

Umeme dominated trading with 1.02 million shares changing hands to register Ushs 564.3 million in turnover. Its share price held steady at Ushs 550. Stanbic Bank share price hit a new 52 week low of Ushs 22 during the week but closed Friday’s trading session at Ushs 24. The counter had 13.27 million shares changing hands to record a turnover of Ushs 294.01 million. Uganda Clays (UCL), New Vision Limited (NVL) and Bank of Baroda Uganda (BOBU) moved 650,000 shares, 5,292 shares and 2,600 shares each to generate turnover of Ushs 9.75 million, Ushs 3.1 million and Ushs 387,400. UCL and NVL share prices were stable at Ushs 15 and Ushs 559 respectively while BOBU lost 0.67% to end the week at Ushs 149.

National Insurance Corporation (NIC) had a turnover of Ushs 148,800 from 12,400 shares exchanged at Ushs 12 each. NIC Holdings Limited published their audited financial statements for the year ended 31st December 2015 showing a 6.79% growth in profit after tax to Ushs 1.92 billion from Ushs 1.8 billion in the previous period.

Among the cross listings, Kenya Airways was the biggest gainer as its share price grew by 3.03% to Ushs 136 while Kenya Commercial Bank share price shed 5.48% end the week at Ushs 1,293.

The benchmark USE All Share Index was down 0.68% to 1,772.44. The USE Local Share Index advanced by 0.23% to close this week at 390.43 while the C8* remained stable at 122.92.

The Uganda Shilling shed most of its gains as the week drew to a close due to increased interbank demand for the greenback. It was quoted at 3,332.3 down from 3,317.6 last Friday.