Equities Market
Equity prices recorded a 0.4% rise in the last week of January, with NASI attracting 0.76 points to 195.36 points. NSE 20, had the highest gain of 1.0% while NSE 10 rose by 0.9%, followed by NSE 25, which pushed up by 0.4%. However, banks lost 0.3% on average.
Weekly turnover spiked by 39.1% to KES 4452.07Mn from KES 3201.54Mn, largely attributed by a 43.7% jump in volume traded, from 79.84Mn the previous week to 114.71Mn shares.
Foreign participation dwindled to 29.3% from 34.8% the week before, accompanied by a growth in net foreign outflow of 548.3Mn to a net foreign inflow of KES 513.78Mn. Major foreign inflows happened on Absa Gold and Stanbic while Safaricom and EABL attracted notable foreign outflows.
Market activity concentrated on the banking, telecommunication and Exchange traded funds sectors, which accounted for 79.6% and 51.4% of the market turnover and shares traded, respectively.
KCB Group was the top mover of the week with KES 954.61Mn in turnover from 14.30Mn shares compared to KES 378.88Mn from 5.68Mn shares recorded last week. The spike in turnover is largely attributed by a rise in foreign buy to 38.5% from 12.2% the prior week.
Safaricom ranked second, posting a turnover of KES 684.49Mn from 23.19Mn shares traded, compared to KES 487.17Mn from 16.44Mn shares the prior week. This was driven by a surge in foreign buys from 19.1% to 37.9%, despite a 0.2% drop in its share price to close at KES 29.60.
Equity Group retained the 3rd position, with a turnover of KES 553.30Mn from 8.15Mn shares up from KES 448.71Mn, as foreign buys rose from 45.9% to 57.2%. The stock shed 2.55% to close at KES 67.00 per share from KES 68.75 the previous week.
B.O.C Kenya was the top gainer of the week with a 13.7% jump to close at KES 137.25 per share from KES 120.75. DTBK followed with a 10.3% gain to KES 129.0 from KES 117.0. Africa Mega rose by 9.9% to close at KES 77.50 per share from KES 70.50.
[Graph in PDF]
Bonds Market
The secondary bonds’ turnover dipped 13.72% from KES 83.57Bn to KES 72.11Bn accompanied by a drop in the number of deals by 11.0% from 1234 to 1098.
The FXD/2021/25Yr had the highest value traded at 7.20Bn with its yield to maturity declined from 13.2503% last week to 13.0504% against 13.6430% accepted in the primary market.
We expect the market will have a slight drop in activities as investors prepare for the upcoming auction set to take place on the 11th of February 2026.
[Graph in PDF]
Yield Curve
The yield curve exhibited mixed reactions in the last week of January 2026, with major shifts happening on the long-end of the curve.
The short-end shifted downwards on the 2nd and 3rd year papers, whereas the section between 4 and 7-years shifted upwards to reverse the previous week’s downward movement on a shift in market attention.
The middle curve between 8 and 13-years experienced minimal downward movements despite the paper (FXD1/2022/015 (11.3-years) and FXD1/2019/020 (13-years)) from the January auction entering the market.
The long-end curve of 14-years and above maintained a downtrend, on what appears to be low demand in the section.
In the first week of February 2026, we expect the yields to remain relatively unchanged on a projected slowdown in market activity after the end month rally.
[Graph in PDF]
Interbank
The interbank rate remained stable in the last week of January, averaging at 8.99% to closely align with the Central Bank Rate (CBR), supported by improved market liquidity. This is even as the average traded interbank volumes edged down on average.
Liquidity demand dropped further by 34.6% w-w from KES 15.88Bn the previous Friday to KES 10.36Bn on Thursday, 29th January 2026. This saw the average interbank down 6.3% from KES 12.43Bn to KES 11.64Bn.
Bank excess liquidity, however, further thinned 50.4% down from KES 13.70Bn to KES 6.8Bn above the CBK cash reserves requirement of 3.5%.
[Graph in PDF]
T-Bills
The weekly Treasury bills auction was oversubscribed at 196.7%, attracting KES 47.21Bn in bids against the KES 24.0Bn, with KES 47.18Bn accepted.
Investor demand was heavily skewed toward the 364-day paper, which recorded an oversubscription of 385.8%, receiving KES 38.58Bn in bids, of which KES 38.57Bn was taken up. The 91-day paper also saw robust demand, attracting KES 6.35Bn in bids (158.8% oversubscription), with KES 6.35Bn accepted.
In contrast, the 182-day paper was undersubscribed, highlighting a shift by investors toward shorter- and longer-term maturity papers.
[Graph in PDF]
Currency
The shilling remained quite stable in the week, trading at an average of KES 129.03 per US dollar. Week on week the shilling was largely stable against the US dollar while weakened against the British pound, the euro and the Japanese yen by 1.9%, 1.4% and 3.0%, respectively.
Year to date, the shilling has stabilized against the US dollar despite the strain on forex reserves due to high external public debt obligations .
Forex reserves rose by 0.9% to USD 12,330Mn, sufficient for 5.3-months of import cover against a 4.0-month target. This was after a Eurobond coupon payment for the January 2034 paper which happened the previous week.
