Sylvia Juuko
26 April 2007
Kampala — ACTIVITY on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) grew nearly 10-fold in the first quarter of the year, driven by investor interest in Stanbic Bank's share offer.
A USE report for January-March showed that activity on the Stanbic Bank counter boosted turnover.
"The turnover of sh26.8b is the highest since the USE's inception, up from a previous record of sh2.9b in the last quarter of 2006," the report says.
The boom in the market saw volumes setting a new record with 153 million shares traded in the period under review from 6.8 million in the previous quarter.
The USE's all share index, which measures trading activity of the exchange, hit a high of 1,002.47 points on January 25 from an opening level of 849.75 points. The rate oscillated between 880 points and 950 but backtracked and slid to a low of 847.56 in the next two months. The all share index is currently at 857.56 points.
"The fluctuations were caused by a January spike in the Stanbic Bank price, which peaked at sh240 before settling around sh140 while the eventual all share index decline was attributed to a sharp fall in cross listed stock prices," the report reads.
The report said that activity on the Stanbic counter accounted for a whopping 81.6% of turnover and 92.8% of the volume.
dfcu Bank accounted for 16.53% of the turnover and 6.71% of the volume, while The New Vision contributed 0.75% of total turnover and 0.35% of the volume.
Uganda Clays and British American Tobacco accounted for 0.25% and 0.06% respectively of turnover and 0.02% each of the volume.
No activity was recorded on the corporate bonds segment as bond-holders, who are mainly institutional investors, continued to hold onto their investments.
Nine companies are listed on the bourse. Some of them are Uganda Clays, Bank of Baroda, British American Tobacco and Kenya Airways.
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