The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has shed off at least Ksh294 billion in just one month, even as foreign investors rush to dispose of their stakes at the bourse.
This has seen the market capitalisation drop to Ksh2.176 trillion from Ksh2.471 trillion, sending the bourse to a 20-month-low.
Safaricom, which has been king in NSE transactions, accounted for 71.4 percent or Ksh210 billion of the paper loss, despite a boom in profits.
On Friday, Safaricom share price declined by 5.62 percent to Ksh30.20, down from Ksh32.00 registered the previous week, with shares worth Ksh1.6 million transacted on Friday alone.
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Listed lenders have also recorded paper losses at NSE, despite recording tremendous profits in the last financial year. The share prices of KCB Group, Equity Group and Co-operative Bank have dropped by between 22.5 percent and 13.75 percent since mid-February.
Equity Group, the largest lender by assets, shed 8.5 percent on its share price over the past month to Ksh45.5 per unit, translating to a Ksh16 billion loss.
KCB Group, on the other hand, traded at Ksh35.70 per share, a drop of 17.3 percent or Ksh23.9 billion.
Apart from elections, experts also fear that the loss could be attributed to US hiking interest rates that have made dollar investments more attractive, dimming the appetite for riskier assets in emerging markets.
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