Car & General Leads NSE Rebound After Record Profit

Car & General PLC extended one of the most extraordinary rallies on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, surging 47.8% in the week ended August 14 to KSh262 after record half-year earnings and a higher interim dividend, taking its one-year gain to about 892% from KSh26.40.

• The stock’s recent KSh285 high put it within 20 percentage points of a 1,000% one-year return.
• The rally came as the broader market returned to gains after the previous week’s pullback.
• NSE market capitalisation rose 1.30% to KSh3.996 trillion, leaving the bourse just KSh3.62 billion short of KSh4 trillion, a level it crossed for the first time in early August.

All five major equity indices advanced, led by banking stocks. The Banking Index gained 2.83% to 276.63, the NSE 10 rose 2.31% to 2,587.63, and the NSE 25 advanced 1.48% to 6,637.29. The NASI climbed 1.30% to 238.13, while the NSE 20 added 0.61% to 4,136.12.

Co-operative Bank jumped 6.98% to KSh38.30, Equity Group gained 4.99% to KSh89.50, while KCB rose 2.95% to KSh87.25. Banks generated 55.38% of weekly equity turnover, reinforcing the sector’s role in the market rebound.

Car & General led the weekly gainers, followed by Flame Tree Group at 18.65%, Carbacid Investments at 7.65%, Co-op Bank at 6.98% and Express Kenya at 6.45%. Safaricom recovered 0.85% to KSh35.40 following its post-dividend book-closure decline a week earlier, while EABL fell 4.12% to KSh273.25.

Market Activity and Rates

The advance came on softer equity activity. Turnover declined 5.62% to KSh3.92 billion, while volumes fell 25.61% to 100.09 million shares. Safaricom remained the most traded counter with KSh1.04 billion in turnover, although its share of market activity fell to 26.67% from 40.12%.

Foreign investors sold a net KSh1.17 billion, more than double the previous week’s KSh487.19 million outflow, and were net sellers in all five sessions. Local investors accounted for 76.2% of turnover, helping absorb the foreign exits as the market advanced.