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| Business |
| MSE is 4th price-gainer |
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by
Ephraim Munthali, 15 September 2004
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19:11:47
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The Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE) has been one of the highest price-gainers in Africa over the past eight months, according to a report from the South African based Standard Bank Group.
The report looked at 12 of Africa’s capital markets over the past four years up to end of August this year.
The countries include Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Of the 12, the Zimbabwean equity market was the best this year, gaining 105.1 percent in US dollar terms from 25.7 percent last year.
The Ghana bourse was the second after gaining 102.2 percent though this was lower than the 141.7 percent rise recorded last year.
Zambia’s Lusaka Stock Exchange got the third slot, climbing to 55.2 percent from 31.9 percent in 2003 while the Malawi bourse was the fourth gainer, rising 47.1 percent after shading 20.3 percent last year.
Tuesday MSE operations manager John Kamanga said lower interest rates and the relative stability of the kwacha during the period helped to attract investors to the bourse.
“We have experienced a realignment of portfolio investment from treasury bills in the money market to shares in the equity market,” said Kamanga.
He added that good dividends, especially from the financial counters, also helped attract investors onto the market.
Kamanga explained that the MSE’s recent performance means that the economy is moving away from an era of desperation to that of optimism.
“We are in the window of optimism because investors have seen that the economy is going in the right direction. A good performance in the equity market is a measure of confidence in the economy,” he said.
MSE has nine listed firms with a market capitalisation of US$100 million while Zimbabwe has 80 and a market capitalisation of US$1billion, Ghana has 23 with a market capitalisation of US$1.9 billion and Zambia has 20 with a market capitalisation of US$200 million.
Kamanga said the bigger the stock market the bigger the liquidity. Liquid markets enable investors to buy or sell shares whenever they want thereby according them more chances to make money.
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