MSE monthly turnover slumps 605%
The 14-counter Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE) raised K381.9 million in April 2013, a 605 percent drop from the previous month’s K2.6 billion largely because of few shares that were transacted in the month.
But the market has performed well compared to the same period last year, when it raised K203.9 million, according to the MSE monthly performance report for April 2013.
In the month, the market transacted 72.1 million shares, down from last month’s two billion shares, but has registered a jump compared to last year during the same period when it transacted 9.6 million shares.
“The market registered an average daily volume of 3.4 million shares in April 2013 compared to 98.8 million shares in March 2013,” says the report.
In the month, the average daily turnover was K18. 1 million ($44 485.96) compared to K128.3 million ($320,119.26) the previous month, reflecting a decrease of -85.83 percent (-86.10 percent in dollar terms).
On the overall, the market recorded a return on index of 0.25 percent, but recorded a decrease in total value traded and volume compared to the previous month.
As a result of this, the overall measure of market performance, the Malawi All Share Index (Masi) closed in April 2013 at 6 360.60 points compared to 6 344.58 points in March 2013.
The uptick was on account of price gains registered by National Investment Trust Limited (Nitl), Standard Bank, TNM plc and Old Mutual plc (OML).
The gain was enough to offset the impact of share price losses in Mpico Limited and NBS Bank, triggering an increase in both the Foreign Share Index and the Domestic Share Index by 1.15 points from 1 093.47 points to 1 106.04 points and by 0.23 points from 4 966.77 points to 4 978.43 points (-0.61 percent in dollar terms) respectively.
In terms of market liquidity, the turnover velocity measured by the ratio of Total Value of Trades to Market Capitalisation (TVT/MCAP) in April was recorded at 0.14 percent compared to 1.00 percent in March.
The ratio of total value of trades to gross domestic product (GDP) (TVT/GDP) recorded a liquidity level 0.03 percent compared to 0.20 percent recorded in the previous month.
On the economic front, the MSE report says the kwacha marginally appreciated against all major trading currencies as at April 30 2013.
