Trans Century Plc climbs to week's top price gainer at NSE.

Trans Century Plc was the top gainer at the Nairobi Securities Exchange(NSE), its share price rising 18.45% to close at KSh 1.22 per share. This is compared to KSh 1.03 recorded the week prior.

Trans Century is a listed firm engaged in power, infrastructure and engineering industries across Africa. 

The firm began the year with a share price of KSh 1.45 KES but has since lost 15.86% off that price valuation, ranking it 58th on the NSE in terms of year-to-date performance.

Shareholders, who have been jittery following undisclosed plans by TransCentury to delist from the NSE, appear to have calmed. 

This is shown by the 9.91% increase of Trans Century share price in recent weeks since March 17, 2021.

The share price of Trans Century, with a Market Capitalization of KSh 341.96 Million, has gained 18.45% over the past one week, 9.91% over a month but a 15.86 % decline YTD performance.

The NSE Weekly turnover increased by 13.88% to KSh 2.34 billion from KSh 2.06 billion posted in the week prior. 

The volume of shares traded increased by 4.18% to 64.8 Million from the 62.2 Million transacted the week prior.

Safaricom was the prime mover with a turnover of KSh 1.2 billion, equivalent to 51.23% of the week's traded value. Its share price rose by 5.79% to close the week at KSh38.40, up from KSh 36.30 the previous week.

The Banking Sector came in second with shares worth KSh 558 Million transacted, an equivalent of 23.81% of the week’s traded value. 

KCB Group Plc closed the week 5.00% higher to KSh.42.00 per share and had 4.4 Million shares valued at KSh.186 million transacted. subsidiary 

Equity Group Holdings Plc gained 3.05% in share price to KSh38.85 on a volume of 3.6 Million shares and a turnover of KSh 137 Million. 

Car & General (Kenya) Plc was the week’s top loser, shedding 10.00% to close the week at KSh 21.60 from KSh 24.00 the week prior.

The Secondary Bond Market realised a 615.32% rise in activity with KSh 27.32 Billion worth of bonds traded against KSh 3.82 Billion worth of bonds transacted in the previous week.

 The Derivatives Market closed the week with a total of 116 contracts valued at KSh 4.2 Million transacted, compared to 76 contracts valued at KSh 3.5 Million posted in the week prior.

The benchmark NSE All-Share Index(NASI)was up 6.49 points or 4.09% to close the trading week at 165.08 points. This represented a  4-week gain of 1.07% and an overall year-to-date gain of 8.53%.

The NSE 20 share index and the NSE25 share indices were up by 14.20 points or 0.76% and 117.68 or 3.35% to close Friday 16th April 2021 at 1,882.96 points and 3,635.75 points, respectively. 

The NSE 20 and the NSE25 share indices have shed up to 0.78% and 6.46%, respectively, in YTD performance.

 CMA Board Chairman's six-year stint ends

The Capital Markets Authority(CMA) Chairman James Ndegwa has left the regulatory state agency. 

This follows the expiry of his two terms of three years as Board Chairman of the Authority, which came to an end on 28th March 2021.

Ndegwa, a wealthy businessman, was first appointed to head the CMA Board of Directors in April 2015. He was subsequently reappointed on March 28, 2018,

for another three years.

An insurer by profession, Ndegwa holds a BA (Hons) and an MA degree from Oxford University. He is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute (UK) and an Associate of the Insurance Institute of Kenya. 

He is the Chairman of First Chartered Securities Limited and a director of several companies. 

Prior to his appointment as CMA Board Chairman, Ndegwa was the Managing Director of Lion of Kenya Insurance Company Limited until 2003.

The Board of Directors of the Authority, consisting of the Chairman, are appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Cabinet Secretary of the National Treasury. 

This Board includes the Principal Secretary of the National Treasury, Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya and the Attorney General.

The Board Chairman and the six members are persons, who have experience and expertise in legal, financial, banking, accounting, economics or insurance matters, serve for a period of three years and are eligible for re-appointment for another three years. 

Ndegwa's reign at CMA has been a mixed bag including a legal challenge to his reappointment as Board Chairman to an Initial Public Offer(IPO) drought that has persisted, delisting of several firms and subdued performance at the Nairobi Securities Exchange(NSE)

“This is my last week as the chairman of the authority’s board. It has been a great honour to serve in this position for two terms and to work with all the various stakeholders in the capital markets industry, our peer regulators, my colleagues on the board and the highly committed team at the authority,” said Ndegwa in his farewell speech.

 Ndegwa, son of former Central Bank of Kenya governor Phillip Ndegwa, and his brother Andrew Ndegwa run a multibillion business empire including First Chartered Securities Ltd and ICEA Asset Management Ltd, NCBA Group and Unga Group spanning banking, milling, insurance and real estate.

Ndegwa is the chairman of First Chartered Securities — the holding company for many of the firms associated with the late Philip Ndegwa family — and a director of several companies which he regulates.

His signature at the Authority remains overseeing the merger of NIC Group and Commercial Bank of Africa to create the country's 4th largest lender by balance sheet size.

While at the helm, CMA pushed for the launch of new products including Real Estate Investment Trusts, Asset-Backed Securities, Exchange-traded fund, Derivatives markets, Online forex trading, Commodities market and Green bonds.