Safaricom ’s share of combined investor wealth at the Nairobi bourse touched a high of 58.79 percent on Wednesday after weeks of a steady rise in its stock prices in a period that has seen other dominant stocks shed value.
The telco claimed at least half of the market wealth on March 19 and has been deepening its share of Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) wealth since then, with strong gains coming from the first week of October.
Already, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has flagged the dominance of five companies — including Safaricom — in the 65-stock Nairobi bourse as a big risk, with the performance of their shares dictating whether the market goes up or down on any given day.
Safaricom share has gained 10.17 percent or Sh3 from October 6 to close trading at Sh32.95, adding Sh120 billion on its market value to take it to Sh1. 32 trillion.
The gain comes in a period when other stocks have shed Sh19.7 billion, cementing Safaricom’s dominance at the Nairobi bourse from 55.94 per cent on October 6.
Safaricom, Equity Bank Group , East Africa Breweries Limited , KCB Group and Co-operative Bank have always accounted for more than 75 per cent of the total investor wealth at the NSE.