The Nairobi Business Ventures #ticker:NBV (NBV) share is the biggest gainer this year at the Nairobi Securities Exchange #ticker:NSE, boosted by a big rally earlier this month following the Sh83 million takeover of the firm by Dubai-based Delta International FZE.
Media, manufacturing and banking stocks on the other hand have been the worst hit by the bear run that hit the market this year—exacerbated by the Covid pandemic—which has seen the NSE All share Index shed 10 percent and investor wealth fall by Sh238.5 billion.
NBV opened the year with a share price of Sh0.70, and barely traded before it was suspended in mid-October after the announcement of the Delta takeover.
Following the lifting of the suspension on completion of the deal last month, the price has now shot up six fold (537 percent) to Sh4.44 a share. This means that anyone who bought Sh1 million worth of NBV shares at the beginning of the year would now be worth Sh6.34 million.
This analysis is based on investors who buy shares at the start of the year and measure their returns at the end of the trading season—in a review that does not capture speculators who enter and exit stocks in short periods.
The other top gainers in the market this year are Kenya Airways #ticker:KQ and Carbacid #ticker:CARB, with gains of 86.8 percent and 50.6 percent respectively to Sh3.83 and Sh12.05.
Mr Gerald Muriuki, an analyst at city based investment bank Genghis Capital, said the fact that that the three top gainers have been subject to significant corporate actions this year has attracted speculators to their stocks, driving up prices.
“It is mostly due to corporate actions, where in the case of NBV it’s the takeover by the Dubai firm, Carbacid making a bid to acquire fellow gas producer BOC Kenya #ticker:BOC and for Kenya Airways, the proposed nationalisation by the government,” said Mr Muriuki.
“Overall, it is not unusual for small cap stocks to dominate the top and bottom of the market, given that they are more driven by the speculative activity.”
The Kenya Airways stock is however suspended from trading pending the resolution of its nationalisation plan.
On the other end, WPP ScanGroup #ticker:SCAN leads the market in share price erosion, going down by 65 percent to Sh6 a share, while another small cap stock Express Kenya(-56 percent) and cement firm Bamburi (-53 percent) were also leading losers.The price erosions are emblematic of the tough times […]
