Patrick Bitature (middle), the Umeme chiarman rings a bell at the USE recently. Market executives anticipate good performance as COVID-19 threat is minimized Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | Trading in the second quarter of 2020 at the Uganda Securities Exchange registered a tremendous decline as Uganda’s equity markets continued to feel the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, according to the quarterly bulletin for the period April – June.
Published by the USE, the bulletin indicate two counties – Umeme and Stanbic to have enjoyed trading dominance as they continued to attract the attention of investors at the Nakawa based bourse.
According to the bulletin, the second quarter of 2020 accounted for a total turnover of Shs3.4billion compared to a combined total of Shs25.6billion that was traded between April – June 2019.
Out of this turnover (trading amount recorded), the UMEME counter took the first position, with a posting of Shs3.1bn, accounting for 91.70% of the total turnover. Stanbic came second after accounting for 4.49%.
The other counters, Bank of Baroda Uganda, CIPLA, Uganda Clays Limited and DFCU posted 2.77%, 0.81%, 0.10% and 0.08% of the quarterly turnover, respectively.
The rest of the counters represented by National Insurance Corporation and New Vision Limited had a combined turnover of Shs1.7million.
The All Share Index opened at 1,305.84 rising steadily to a high of 1,396.52 in May but dropped gradually to close at 1,369.8.
This trend was due to changes in different market prices and the exchange rate. The local share index fell steadily from 342.21 to 340.14 in May 2020 and plunged further to close at 339.17 in June 2020.
Meanwhile, there were six treasury bonds re-opened in the quarter with a value of Shs940bn which were listed. The current total value of the Government Bonds listed on the bourse stands at Shs12.6trillion.
The corporate bonds segment remained inactive throughout the period as investors in this segment continued to hold onto their investments and receive interest that is paid out semi-annually.
There are two corporate bonds currently listed on the USE. One is African Development Bank Bond maturing in February 2022 and the other is Kakira Sugar Limited Bond maturing in December 2023. Uncertain future Market analysts say that while the ultimate growth outcome is still uncertain, an even worse scenario is possible if it takes longer to bring the health crisis under control. The pandemic, analysts say will result in output contractions across the vast financial markets.This view is also […]