Demand pushes stock prices up

Demand for some stocks on the 14-counter Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE) last week continued to heighten trade resulting in six counters adding value out of 10 counters registering trading activity.

The local shares’ market weekly report shows that, the gain in six counters pushed up the indicative Malawi All Share Index (Masi)—the overall measure of market performance—which jumped by 450.35 points to close the week at 8 287.17 points.

This was because of an increase in both the domestic share index, the gauge of domestic counters’ performance, and the foreign share index, anchored by one counter, by 359.46 points from 6 319.88 points to 6 499.34 points and by 0.63 points from 1 295.83 points to 1 296.46 points respectively.

In the week, according to the report, all the banks gained value with National Bank of Malawi (NBM) leading the way with a K34 gain to close the week at K122.50, representing a 38 percent jump, with 79 379 shares changing hands followed by NBS Bank whose share price leapt 5.7 percent to K11.10, a gain of 60 tambala out of 231 638 shares.

Standard Bank’s share price closed the week at K182, a gain of 1.6 percent from K179 per share with a paltry 1 326 shares transacted.

Other counters that registered share price gain are Nico Holdings Limited, the parent company of NBS Bank, gaining 70 tambala to close the week at K15 and Press Corporation Limited (PCL), which added K11.03 to close at K200 per share.

The only foreign counter on the local bourse, Old Mutual plc (OML), gained 50 tambala to close the week at K1 031.50 per share.

In their weekly market wrap, FDH Stockbrokers Limited attributed Nico Holdings’ price gain to the promising trading statement the company issued recently which indicated good tidings for its half yearly results.

In the week under review, 4.7 million shares changed hands raising K141.6 million ($422 351.27) in 30 deals, according to the MSE report.