Market Capitalization at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) increased to Ksh 2.59 trillion at the close of trading last week, a new high for the stock exchange, despite a decline in traded volumes and equity turnover. Investment banks attribute the excitement at the NSE to the impressive half-year numbers reported by Stanbic, Equity, Absa, KCB and Co-operative Bank, the big-cap banks that drive a huge chunk of activity at the bourse.
Market capitalization is a key financial metric used to assess the total value of wealth at the NSE and is an essential indicator for investors, providing insights into NSE’s size, financial stability, and growth potential.
According to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Weekly Report, which is updated every Thursday, NSE Equity turnover fell 15.65% to Ksh 1.92 billion, total shares traded also declined 2.48% to Ksh 83.04 million. But Market Capitalization, which indicates wealth held by investors at the NSE, increased 2.11% to reach a new high of KSh 2.589 trillion.
Weekly Equity deals were up 36.7% to 15,361 from 11,240 the previous week.
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Bond turnover in the Domestic Secondary Market decreased by 21.50% during the week ending August 14th 2025. On the international market, yields on Kenya’s Eurobonds decreased by 16.13% basis points on average.
The Benchmark NASI, NSE 25 and NSE 20 share price indices increased by 2.11 percent, 2.90 percent and 4.52 percent, respectively, during the week ending August 14, 2025.
The NSE top weekly gainers were led by Eveready East Africa (+52.83%), Car & General (+29.67%), HF Group (+26.30%), Olympia Capital (+21.48%), and Sameer Africa (+17.13%).
Eveready closed at Ksh 1.62 per share on Friday, recording a 9.5% gain over its previous price of KSh 1.45. This counter began the year at KSh 1.15 and has since gained 40.9%. Eveready has accrued an outstanding 74% over the past four-year period. Over the past three months, Eveready has traded a volume of 7.07 shares in 2081 deals-valued at KSh 7.07 million over the period.
According to Analysts, wealth held at the NSE is being buoyed by impressive half-year earnings of the big banks such as Kenya Commercial Bank and Equity Bank that have witnessed a lot of investor activity. The NSE 20-Share Index, which tracks the largest counters by market capitalization, has been on a high for weeks now.
Data from the Nairobi bourse shows that at the end of the week, the NSE All Share Index was up 2.77%, the NSE 20Share Index up 3.94% and the NSE 10 Share index edged 3.22%.
“The earnings period has also coincided with interest rates coming down and these factors have boosted activity at the NSE. The recently oversubscribed treasury bonds auction is also an indicator of excess liquidity and some of this cash could be finding a home at the NSE,” said a top research analyst at Standard Investment Bank(SIB).
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At a recent Treasury Bond’s Auction, while the CBK offered bonds worth Ksh 300 billion, it only took Ksh 90 million and returned the rest of the cash to investors. It is this excess liquidity in the money market that could also be finding its way into the equities market.
During the Treasury Bond auction of 13th August, the reopened 15-year and 19-year infrastructure bonds received bids totalling Ksh 323.4 billion against an advertised amount of Ksh 90.0 billion, representing a performance rate of 359.4%.
Listed banks are reporting impressive half-year numbers and reasonable dividend payouts. There is also more cash chasing after a limited number of securities and this has pushed up activity at the NSE, even as underlying fundamentals remain unchanged.
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