Old Mutual share price jumps 2.3%
The 2.3 percent share price gain in Old Mutual (OML) brought activity on the Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE) last week, pushing the foreign share index, which has been stagnant for some time, by 25.14 points.
OML’s share price closed the week at K870 per share from K850, but it was not enough to offset the impact of the decline in TNM plc and FMB share prices which pushed down the indicative Malawi All Share Index (Masi).
TNM, according to the MSE weekly report, shed 16 tambala to close the week at K1 per share while FMB closed the week at K8, which is 50 tambala less than the week before.
Analysts have said TNM share price drop is not surprising following a profit after-tax drop of 49 percent to K692.3 million (about $173 750) from K1.3 billion (about $3.2m) the company has registered in the year ended December 2012.
TNM blamed the profit drop on devaluation of the kwacha and its subsequent floatation which resulted in a “significant increase in most of the company’s operating expenditure, which are mainly denominated in foreign currencies”.
FMB, in the year, reported a 70 percent jump in after-tax profit to K3.4 billion (about $8.5m) from the previous year’s K2 billion (about $5m), but five percentage points below the 75 percent growth projected in the caution statement last year.
During the week, the 14-counter market recorded trading activity in seven counters, namely, FMB, Illovo Sugar (Malawi) Limited, National Bank of Malawi, NBS Bank, National Investment Trust Limited, TNM and OML.
The market transacted about 1.2 million shares raising K65.5 million ($159 929.15) in 19 deals.
