Stock market turnover dips in January

February 15, 2018 in Finance, Markets by Editor

February 15—Turnover at the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) registered a 3.66% drop during January to UGX8.37 billion (about $2.3 million) from the UGX 8.69 billion ($2.4 million) seen in December 2017.

Stanbic Bank Uganda and Umeme, the electricity distributor, were the most active counters contributing 98.72% of total turnover and 99.09% of share volume.

Total market capitalisation of the USE in the period topped UGX28.45 trillion (just short of $7 billion), the highest since 2015. This translated to a 4% gain on the All Share Index and 2.18% on the Local Share Index closing the month at 2,056.63 and 390.12 respectively.

Treasury bills led yield gains amid stable investor demand. Short term yields improved in January with the 91-day gaining 15.90 basis points to 8.2%, the 182 day rose 5.40 basis points while the 364 day gained 7 basis points. From the medium-term notes, the 3-year increased 3.70 basis points to 11.2% and the 5 year by 0.8 basis points to 12.5%. The 2-year however shed 1.60 basis points to 10.9%. The long-term tenors were all down 13.30 basis points to 13.95% on the 10 year and 14.17% on the 15 year yields respectively. Compared to the same period 2017, all tenors are down by an average of 27.8%.

The local currency was stable in January with balanced demand and supply for the dollar from the manufacturing firms, energy firms, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and commodity exporters. The Shilling gained 0.42% from the start of the year compared to 0.60% in the same period last year despite having mounting pressures in the first half of the month. The shilling traded between UGX3,619.96 and UGX3,652.88.