Kampala — THE Uganda Securities Exchange is to amend its rules as the bourse prepares to embrace the central depository system (CDS). Upon commencement, the CDS will enable the 11-year-old institution to move away from manual clearance and settlement of transactions to electronic settlements.

According to sources, the dismantling of paper certificates is "very likely to begin next month."

Experts say most of the changes, like the amendment to Rule 29 (1)(a) announced on Monday, in which the reference price for a security shall be the volume weighted average price (VWAP) of transactions executed during the entire trading session of trading of the specific security will not affect trading.

"Most of the changes have been internal and will not affect the market.

"The VWAP is expected to provide a more reflective price of trading, say if the same security traded at two different prices on the same day, the reference price is the total turnover divided by the total volume of the day," said an analyst.

On the market, activity remained low with Uganda Clays moving the biggest volumes of 153,577 shares at sh70, worth sh10.8m turnover.

The announcement of Stanbic dividends did little to excite the counter as the bank sold only 43,458 shares at sh160, the same share price as last week.

Stanbic's turnover dropped to sh6.9m, compared to the sh36m earned last Tuesday.

DFCU made some gains selling 8,587 shares at an improved sh500 per share. This resulted into a turnover of sh4.3 million. The previous week, the bank sold just 290 shares at sh490.

Having traded no single share last Tuesday, BOBU was the other gainer this week moving 2000 shares at sh380 and fetching sh760,000 in turnover.

Total turnover for the day was sh22.8million against 207, 622 total shares traded.

nover more than doubled on Tuesday, thanks partly to a revived Uganda Clays performance as other counters remained largely passive.

Total turnover hit sh72.7m, which was an improvement compared to the sh28.4m the market attained the week earlier.

There is still no consistency in the market in terms of trade volumes and turnover to indicate that the effects of the economic slowdown have eased.

Only Stanbic Bank's bond listed a few weeks ago and the subsequent improvement in liquidity brought a short lived excitement.

Trading at the same price as last week, Uganda Clays sold 512,698 shares, the largest volume on the day as the clay-maker recouped weeks of low trading volumes. This was sh35.9m turnover.

Last Tuesday, UCL traded 2,287 shares worth sh160, 090 turnover. A year ago, Uganda Clays was one of the most sought after counters following ambitious regional expansion plans.

Stanbic Bank was second best on Tuesday, trading 255,000 shares at sh160 each, which brought in sh36m turnover. Last Tuesday, the bank sold 164,070 shares worth sh26.3m.

Very notable was the fact that there were 8 million block shares on offer at sh180. But the market refuses to take this price.

Market watchers also anticipate Stanbic will hold steady with no foreseeable sharp decline in share prices.

The New Vision gained some slight liquidity although trading volumes and share price remained low at a contracted 840 shares and sh800 per ordinary share respectively. Turnover was sh672, 000. Last week, NVL did not trade.

DFCU sold 250 shares at sh490. Turnover was sh125, 500.

The all share index however fell to 784.49 from 792.21 of the previous Tuesday.

HE Stanbic Bank counter responded to the announcement that the bank is issuing a sh30b note at the stock exchange by trading 639,735 shares on Tuesday.

The deal fetched sh102m in turnover, which accounted for 83% of the entire transaction of the day. This was a massive movement compared to last Tuesday when the bank transacted just 82,971 shares.

The same counter also witnessed 8,420,597 offers for shares.

In the note issue, the bank is looking to raise capital to finance its year long activities through long term financing from the note.

Available reports also indicate that Stanbic Bank could witness heavier trading in the days ahead because about 1.5 million shares were posted on the one-day offer board at sh160 at the beginning of the week. These are all available for trading.

Uganda Clays also traded 85,996 shares, realising a turnover of 6,454,700. UCL closed the trading day at sh80 per ordinary share.

A market report from African Alliance said on Monday, the dfcu counter recorded outstanding institutional demand for 600,000 million shares within sh425 to sh435.

The demand for dfcu shares materialised on Tuesday when 6,062 shares were sold. The counter closed the day at sh430.

"Given the counter's attractive pricing and demand-supply situation, an increased trading price seems likely," read the report.