Mixed performance for Malawi Stock Exchange


The Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE) continues to register a staggered performance due to a slow in trades perpetuated by the coronavirus pandemic.
A market performance report published by MSE on Wednesday indicates that the market transacted a total of 62,683,022 shares at a total consideration of K1,263,639,879.92 in 195 trades in the month of July.
This represents a 3.13 percent decrease in terms of share volume traded and an 8.6 percent decrease in share value traded when compared to 64,711,565 shares traded at a total consideration of K1,382,505,684.85 in 299 trades recorded in June.
six counters on the market registered price losses including MPICO which registered a 15.93 percent loss, FMBCH at 14.97 percent, TNM 3.97 percent, Press Corporation Limited (PCL) 3.91 percent, Nico at 0.89 percent and NBS Bank at 0.05 percent.
However, the market registered price gains in ICON Properties at 11.4 percent, Airtel Malawi at 10 percent and Standard Bank at 5.06 percent.
The development resulted in a positive return on index which also reflected in the upward movement of the Malawi All Share Index from 29784.70 points registered in June 2020 to 29851.63 points registered in July.
Operations Manager for Alliance Stockbrokers Limited, Thokozani Saulosi, said the trend is a reflection of the impact of the pandemic on the stock market.
“Despite registering a positive month on month return on index of 0.22 percent the counters have displayed the impact of the pandemic with negative trading statements which have affected the share prices.
“…this has also brought in liquidity constraints due to investors skepticism in buying shares in certain counters and has also led to increased pressure on share prices which has led to a minimal gain in the market index,” Saulosi said.
In a separate interview MSE Chief Executive Office, John Kamanga, said the positive return on index was as a result of the weight of the three counters that registered price gains.
“This is as a result of the total weight they have in the total market capitalisation and the intensity of how they have increased determines the total average movement. The Malawi All Share Index (MASI) has been going up in a staggered manner because there have been very few trades that is why the volumes and value have gone down in the month,” Kamanga said.
