Stock market closes week on a high

By Our Reporter

There was more activity on the Ugandan bourse this week as value traded advanced to Ushs 17.74 billion from Ushs 12.8 billion last week. Umeme registered the highest turnover with Ushs 14.25 billion as a result of trading 23.75 million shares. Its share price shed 4.76% to end the week at Ushs 600.
Stanbic Bank Uganda had 107.18 million shares exchanged at Ushs 32 each to record a turnover of Ushs 3.43 billion.

Uganda Clays Limited (UCL), DFCU and Bank of Baroda (BOBU) moved 1.8 million shares, 17,550 shares and 65,176 shares to generate a turnover of Ushs 27.05 million, Ushs 16.67 million and Ushs 10.1 million respectively. The 3 companies’ share prices held steady at Ushs 15, Ushs 950 and Ushs 155 respectively.
New Vision Limited share price was up 0.66% to Ushs 610. The counter traded 2,000 shares to realize a turnover of Ushs 1.22 million.

Centum Investments, a cross listed counter had 3,000 shares changing hands to register a turnover of Ushs 4.67 million while its share price was down 0.95% to end the week at Ushs 1,567.

Among the cross listings, Jubilee Holdings made the biggest gain of 4.05% to Ushs 16,655 while East African Breweries was the biggest loser as its price shed 8.53% to end the week at Ushs 9,128.

The Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) All Share Index lost 3.16% to end the week at 1,793.04. On the other hand, the USE Local Share Index and C8* shrunk by 0.99% to close the week at 419.02 and 131.85 respectively.

Industry observers anticipate for the market to register more activity with the possibility of restructuring deals in 2016. The proposed Uganda Clays conversion of Ushs 19.7 billion debt into equity by their largest shareholder, NSSF might be effected this year. This debt restructuring is likely to offer substantial support in returning UCL to profitability after two years of losses characterized by about four years of high indebtedness.