NSE staff trading shares at the Nairobi Security Exchange Photo/KARUGA WA NJUGUNA The share price of the Nairobi Securities Exchange limited dropped to an all-time low of yesterday even after acquiring more stake in the Central Depository & Settlement Corporation (CDSC).
According to the real-time stocks tracker, Mystock, the self listed stock trader’s share which has been on a free fall since 2018 hit Sh6.50 by noon compared to Sh7.20 Monday.
NSE, which demutualized and self-listed in 2014, with its share trading at Sh19.60 hit an all-time high of Sh28.50 in May 2016, experienced a steep decline to Sh11 a year later before regaining stability that pushed it to Sh22 in 2018.
”It looks like its bottoming out,” money market analyst and financial risk expert Mihr Thakar posted on twitter.
In the latest annual report, NSE revealed that it had raised its stake in the depository body to over 40 per cent from 25 per cent.
It bought 88.8 per cent in the Association of Kenya Stockbrokers (AKS) Nominees Limited which holds an 18 per cent stake in CDSC.
The transaction was carried out in two tranches. The first was late last year in which NSE bought a 61 per cent stake at Sh77 million.
A local daily reported that NSE followed this up with a second purchase of an additional 1,381 shares or 27.8 percent of AKS at a cost of Sh34.9 million in the first quarter of 2020.
On Monday, NSE appointed Kiprono Kittony as the board chair, replacing Samuel Kimani who resigned on July 13 after serving as the chairman of the NSE board since 2012.
Kittony plans to push for more listings at the bourse which has not had any major Initial Public Offer (IPO) in the last eight years.