NAIROBI, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Investors' wealth at Kenya's Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has surged 48 percent in a year amid sustained rise in share prices of blue chip stocks.
Market data from the NSE released on Wednesday shows that market capitalization, a measure of investors' wealth, stood at 2.07 trillion Kenyan shillings (about 15.98 billion U.S. dollars), the highest level in two years. That marked an increase from 10.8 billion U.S. dollars in January 2024, according to the NSE.
Among the stocks whose prices have surged significantly, pushing up investors' wealth are those in the telecommunication, banking, insurance as well as energy and petroleum sectors.
All key indices of the market have, similarly, recorded massive gains.
The All Share index (NASI) on Wednesday closed at 131.73, according to the NSE. The rally of stocks has seen the NSE offer the best returns since 2010 as investor confidence returns.
Analysts noted that the NSE has benefitted from the Central Bank of Kenya's reduction of its benchmark rate to 11.25 percent from a high of 14 percent, making investors flock to the stock market for higher returns.
In November 2024, NSE added three more of its listed firms to the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Frontier Markets Small Cap Index, with the exchange's Chief Executive Officer Frank Mwiti noting this would help drive significant capital inflows to the NSE. ■