MSE turnover sluggish, down 90%
Turnover on the Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE) last week was sluggish, dropping by about 90 percent to close at measly K28 million from K278 million the week before on the back of weak trading volumes.
In the week, 5.4 million shares changed hand from the previous week’s 81.2 million, according to a market report.
However, analysts have described the local bourse as marginally bullish, with the Malawi All Share Index (Masi) increasing by 4.43 points to settle at 13 237.97 points due to share price gains in financial services providers National Bank of Malawi (NBM) and Old Mutual.
NBM share price inched up from K234.84 to K235.00 and Old Mutual share price increased to K1 385 from K1 360.
Due to the price gains, the Domestic Share Index (DSI) rose to 10 410.79 points while the Foreign Share Index (FSI) increased to 1740.76 points from 1 709.34 points in the previous week after being flat since December 2013.
Analysts have attributed the share price gains to good performance of the companies last year and a reflection of the final dividends that they have proposed or declared.
NBM 2013 pretax profit climbed 68 percent to K18.4 billion from K11 billion in 2012 and at its annual general meeting (AGM) last week, the bank resolved to pay a final dividend of K2.9 billion, representing K6.20 per share.
