MSE closed on higher note in February—report

The Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE) was bullish in February with five counters registering price gains, sending the overall market measure up by an average 0.06 percent, a report shows.

The MSE monthly market report for February 2021 shows that the 16-counter bourse transacted a total of 12.05 million shares, raising K438.93 million (about $564 016.88) in 178 trades.

The perfomance is better than the month before when 2.28 million shares changed hands, raising K62.75 million ($8 211.68) in 147 trades.

During the review period, the volume of shares traded increased by 428.42 percent and there was a 599.44 percent increase in share value traded.

Reads the report in part: “Daily average share trades exhibited similar trends where the market registered an average daily volume of 602 640 shares compared to 114 046 shares traded in January 2021, reflecting an increase of 428.42 percent.”

In the month under review, counters in the banking sector, namely FDH Bank plc, FMBCH, Standard Bank plc and National Bank of Malawi plc were top gainers, registering 14.88 percent, 0.07 percent and 0.0025 percent and 0.0015 percent capital gains, respectively.

In an interview on Thursday, MSE operations manager Kelline Kanyangala said unlike in January when traded volumes are usually low compared to other months, volumes and activity picked up in February.

In terms of performance, she said the positive return on index was on account of gains on the four counters, which outweighed the price declines on the other eight counters.

“This is because despite some companies publishing trading statements in which they expect profits to decline, we also saw a couple of other companies that expect to register profit increases of above 20 percent,” said Kanyangala.