Shares market loses ‘exciting mood’
The shares market last week lost its “exciting mood” with only 3.5 million shares changing hands, raising K48.8 million ($120 866.38) in 16 deals, the Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE) weekly report has shown.
In contrast, last week it transacted a total of 34.1 million shares, raising K117.6 million ($284 320.01) in 30 deals.
But out of the seven counters that registered activity in the week, only the National Investment Trust Limited (Nitl) gained 1.25 percent to close the week at K16.99 per share with half a million shares changing hands.
The gain in Nitl effectively raised the overall measure of market performance, the Malawi All Share Index (Masi) and the gauge of domestic counters’ performance, the Domestic Share Index by 0.1 percent, according to the report.
The foreign share index anchored by foreign counter Old Mutual plc (OML) closed flat at 1 093.47 points due to no trade registered on the counter in the week.
During the week, seven counters, FMB, Illovo Sugar (Malawi) Limited, Mpico Limited, NBS Bank, Nitl, Press Corporation Limited and TNM plc, registered trading activity.
But despite not gaining in share price, there was a notable surge in demand for Illovo, Standard Bank and National Bank of Malawi counters, according to a market report from FDH Stockbrokers Malawi Limited.
The 14-counter market is yet to pick up to the satisfaction of investors, despite some companies releasing their earnings reports for the year ended December 2012.
In another development, at the treasury bills (T-bills) auction last week, the average yield on 91 days tenor and the 182 days tenor decreased by 6.85 percent from 41.87 percent to 35.02 percent and 3.28 percent from 43 percent to 39.72 percent respectively, with no allotment for the 364 days treasury bill.
This resulted in K927.17 million (about $2.3m) being raised against an announced amount of K923.00 million (about $2.1m).
T-bills are open to foreign investors and both the capital and interest are remittal after deduction of withholding tax on interest currently at 15 percent.
