Slow week at Ugandan Bourse as shilling continues to weaken

By Silvia Nyambura

The stock market has closed the week with UMEME maintaining dominance to record turnover of Ushs 122.9 million from 245,929 shares traded at Ushs 500 each. Stanbic Bank Uganda moved 177,373 shares at Ushs 33 per share to realize a turnover of Ushs 5.85 million. Bank of Baroda Uganda had Ushs 78.68 million and Ushs 28.32 million in turnover as a result of trading 2.38 million shares and 217,825 shares at flat prices of Ushs 33 and Ushs 130 respectively.

British American Tobacco Uganda share price gained 0.29 per cent to reach a new 12 month high at Ushs 8,525. A total of 1,000 BATU shares were exchanged this week to register a turnover of Ushs 8.53 million. DFCU was the week’s other gainer as its price advanced by 2.43 per cent to trade at Ushs 801 from Ushs 782 last week. DFCU moved 2,902 shares to realize a turnover of Ushs 2.32 million. New Vision Limited had the least turnover with Ushs 97,524 from 162 shares changing hands at Ushs 602 each.

Market turnover advanced further today to Ushs 128.82 million (USD 44,717) from Ushs 37.38 million (USD 12,974) yesterday. The USE All Share Index fell by 2.6 per cent to 2,040.27 on the back of price dips on most of the cross listed counters. The C8 remained stable at 102.11 as there were no price movements registered on any of the eight local counters.

During the week, activity at the Ugandan bourse slowed down despite the fact that there was an increase in the number of counters that registered trades. A total of six counters witnessed trading activity compared to four counters last week.

Weekly market turnover plummeted by 95.04 percent to Ushs 255.14 million (USD 88,569) from Ushs 5.14 billion (USD 1.79 million) previously. The benchmark USE All Share Index gained 1.5 per cent to end this week at 2,040.27 due to price increments on the largely capitalized cross listed counters (EABL, EBL and KCB) which carry more weight in relation to the other counters.

The local companies’ indices, USE Local Share Index and C8 were also up 0.29 per cent and 0.28 per cent to 324.52 and 102.11 respectively. This was as a result of price appreciations registered on DFCU and BATU at the start of the week.

East African Breweries Limited had the biggest gains among the cross listed counters while Kenya Airways was the week’s biggest loser. The Uganda Shilling had a depreciating trend this week that saw it breaching the 3,000 mark. However, intervention from the central bank offered support to the shilling as it stood at 2,880.7 at midday on Friday compared to 2,937.4 last week.