The total market capitalisation of sub-Saharan Africa’s stock markets rose 3.2 percent to $1.20 trillion year to date (March 2022) in United States dollar terms on the back of positive price movements and appreciations witnessed by the Mauritius Stock Exchange (0.7%) Botswana (2.6%), Tanzania (1.2%) and Malawi (4.4%) exchanges, respectively, as the region continues to show resilience, recovering from the effect of Covid-19, as well as continued show of investor confidence in the face of the ongoing geopolitical faceoff in Europe, collated official market data from African Financials show.
On the contrary, in the month of March, the marginal gain across the sub-Saharan African stock markets was down 1.5 percent, dragged by bearish performances from some of the major bourses, a surge in inflation and exchange rate weaknesses in countries such as the Nigerian Exchange (1.0%), Kenya (3.8%), Ghana (8.4%) and Uganda (10.2%) respectively.
Regardless of the 10 percent increase recorded in the price of crude oil to $107.79 per barrel in March 2022 and the three percent surge reported in the price of gold to nearly $2,000 ($1,934) per ounce, year to date, the Nigerian naira has depreciated 0.5 percent against the dollar due to continued FX demand and lack of liquidity within the system, especially with the call by Nigeria’s apex bank for more tightening measures on FX availability to banks, BDCs and individuals or corporates, for personal or business purposes. Also, currency weakening was recorded for Ghana (18.2%), Côte d’Ivoire (2.2%), Kenya (1.6%) and Zambia (8.0%) year to date. Read Also:
On flipping the coin, the South African Rand was up 5.4 percent for the month, but regional currency appreciation was muted whereas the Rand appreciated year to date by 9.2 percent alongside the Botswana local currency, which gained strength by 2.7 percent.
However, SSA stock markets, excluding South Africa, have been held back by Nigeria and are now at support levels going back to 2004. Thus, its outperformance against the Shanghai Composite and MSCI Far East has disappeared. But the region has outperformed MSCI Eastern Europe.
Therefore, the top 30 firms listed on the various exchanges across Africa excluding South Africa at the close of the first quarter of 2022, performed variably, falling 1.5 percent on the month and 3.2 percent year to date, with positive market returns for 10 of the 14 markets reviewed on the back of a positive rally in MTN Nigeria, AVZ Minerals and Zimbabwean […]
