Equities Market
The equities’ prices improved marginally this week by 0.3%, as reflected by the Nairobi All-Share Index (NASI). However, NSE 10 declined the most by 0.9% followed by NSE 20 and NSE 25 counters with drops of 0.7%, respectively. The banking sector shrunk by 1.7% as some investors cashed in some capital gains fronted by half year and Q3-2025 stellar financials.
Weekly market turnover edged up by 6.1% to KES 3.83Bn, despite a slightly drop of 12.5% in shares traded, from 132.07Mn to 115.62Mn shares.
Foreign investor participation dropped to 22.2% from 33.3% the previous week, accompanied by a growth in net foreign outflows from KES 387.83Mn to KES 834.15Mn. Notable foreign outflows were seen on Equity Group and KenGen while Safaricom, BAT, and Stanbic Bank.
Market focus remained in the banking, telecommunications and manufacturing sectors, which jointly contributed 92.9% of total market turnover and 70.7% of total shares traded during the week.
Safaricom retained the week’s top mover with KES 1,427.25Mn turnover from 48.37Mn shares traded. Increase attention on the counter saw its price surge 2.8% from KES 29.00 to KES 29.80 per share supported by a promising future.
KCB Group followed with a turnover of KES 564.66Mn from 8.65Mn shares, after the bank released its improved financials for Q3-3035 in the week and registering a KES 62.08Bn profits before tax (PBT), a 8.1% rise compared to KES 57.43Bn announced same time in 2024. The performance was largely driven by a low cost of financing its interest earning assets coupled with marginal growths in the overall interest income.
Equity Group ranked third with a turnover of KES 534.92Mn, exchanging 8.30Mn shares.
During the week, Absa Bank Kenya reported KES 24.21Bn profits before tax (PBT) for the first three quarter of 2025, representing a 14.9% growth from that of KES 21.06Bn posted in Q3-2024. The outstanding results were supported by a low cost of financing, improved non-funded income (NFI) and a prudent cost management, which offset faster the decline in total interest income.
Uchumi emerged as the week’s top gainer for the second consecutive week, gaining 54.2% from KES 0.48 to KES 0.74, supported by its first profit of KES 8.80Mn for the year ended June 2025 after several years of posting losses. Uchumi’s profits were driven by rental incomes. Portland and Kenya Power took second and third top gainers positions at 10.7% from KES 58.25 to KES 64.50 and at 10.0% from KES 4.51 to KES 4.96 per share, respectively.
[Graph in PDF]
Bonds Market
The secondary bonds market value traded dwindled 37.47% from KES 55.88Bn to KES34.94Bn following a 16.6% decline in the number of deals traded from 1,004 deals to 837 deals. The drop-in activity was due to the primary auction for the two November papers, FXD3/2019/015 (8.7-years, 12.340% coupon) and FXD1/2022/025 (21.9-years, 14.188% coupon), that took place on 19th November 2025.
The most traded paper this week were FXD1/2018/25yr which recorded a turnover of KES 4.74Bn after its yield fell to 13.0169% from 13.0735% against 14.3475% accepted in the primary market. The second most traded paper was IFB/2018/15yr with KES4.68Bn in turnover.
Overall, infrastructure bond papers traded the most in the week after several weeks of week attention led byIFB1/2018/15 and IFB1/2022/14 which took the second and third mover positions. IFBs traded a total of KES 18.38Bn to account for 52.6% of the market value traded.
The week’s primary bond auction was oversubscribed at 289.6%, attracting KES 115.86Bn in bids. The government accepted KES 54.76Bn, translating to a 136.9% performance against the KES 40Bn target.
Notably, the accepted rates, 12.5736% for the FXD3/2019/015 and 13.7460% for the FXD1/2022/025, aligned with our previously outlined yield forecast. Value settlement is set for 24th November 2025.
[Graph in PDF]
Yield Curve
The yield curve experienced mixed movements influenced by the primary auction that was that happened in the week.
The most pronounced upward movements were observed in the 17- to 21-year papers, where yields rose by 11.75bps to 56.72bps which showed the strategic effort made by investors to push yields higher in order to secure more attractive discounts in the primary auction.
The short end of the curve also experienced a marginal increment in their yields while the 7-year paper had a significant decline majorly attributed by the buyback offer whose auction took place on Monday 17th November 2025.
This coming week we expect that the yields will begin to drop as investors sell the two additional November papers to investors who missed it in the primary market.
[Graph in PDF]
Interbank
The interbank rate closed the week at 9.25%, marking a slight increment from 9.23% in the previous week while the average interbank rate remained relatively stable clearly depicting relatively stable liquid market.
Closing interbank demand spiked by 68.3%, even though the average weekly demand fell by 48.3%, from KES 10.62Bn to KES 5.49Bn which suggested a short-term funding pressure was present towards the end of the week.
The rise in liquidity demand is attributed to tax payments for value added tax (VAT) exercise duty tax, withholding tax and rental taxes that happened on Thursday, 20th November 2025 and towards the above primary auction whose value payment is due on Monday, November 24, 2025.
Bank excess reserves rose 17.0% from KES 14.7Bn to KES 17.2 Bn as investors conserves funds towards the above primary value payment. The growth in reserves was further emanated from maturing T-Bills as well as rejected funds from the primary auction this week.
[Graph in PDF]
Treasury Bills
The weekly T-bills auction remained oversubscribed at 180.92%, receiving KES 43.42Bn in bids against the KES 24.0Bn offered, with KES 43.39Bn accepted.
Investor demand was concentrated in the 364-day paper, which recorded a robust 257.28% oversubscription, attracting KES 25.73Bn in bids, of which KES 25.72Bn was accepted. The 91-day paper also posted strong demand at 336.6%, receiving KES 13.46Bn and accepting KES 13.45Bn.
In contrast, the 182-day paper was undersubscribed, indicating a strategic shift by investors away from the tenure in favor of the shorter and longer maturities.
The strong auction performance was supported by maturities of KES 39.27Bn expected on 24th November 2025, most of which will be re-invested back.
[Graph in PDF]
Currency
The Kenyan shilling remained relatively stable in the week against the USD and British Pound with both of them averaging KES 129.29 per US dollar and KES 170.04 per pound. While it showed minimal movement against the USD, it strengthened by 0.5% against the euro and 1.4% against the Japanese yen.
On a year-to-date basis, the shilling weakened slightly by 0.3% against the dollar. The positive impact of rising foreign exchange reserves continues to be partially offset by elevated external debt servicing requirements.
Forex reserves shrink marginally to USD 12.01Bn, equivalent to 5.2 months of import cover, comfortably above the Central Bank of Kenya’s recommended minimum of 4.0 months. The accumulation of reserves has been supported by Eurobond inflows, resilient diaspora remittances, and strong agricultural export earnings.
