Equities Market
Equity prices closed the final week of the year with a decline of 0.3% as measured by the Nairobi All Share Index (NASI) while NSE 25 contracted by 0.3%. NSE 10 and NSE 20 counters however, grew by 0.1% and 0.3%, respectively while the banking sector posted a 1.1% average gain.
Market activity shrunk sharply during the week, with turnover dipping by 81.6% to KES 1.43Bn, down from KES 7.77Bn in the previous week. This was attributed to a decline in volumes traded by more than a half from 156.91Mn to 43.59Mn shares. The drop-in activity was largely attributed to the festive seasons which has seen most investors stay out of the market.
Foreign investor participation sunk from 62.9% to 28.9% week-on-week to record a net foreign outflow of KES 63.22Mn, compared to a net foreign inflow of KES 119.32Mn of the preceding week. Heavy net foreign inflows were observed in Safaricom and KCB Group, while Equity Group and Absa Gold experienced major net foreign outflow.
Investor activity was concentrated in the banking, telecommunications and Exchange traded funds sectors, which together accounted for 88.3% of total market turnover and 64.1% of total shares traded.
Safaricom retained the week’s top mover to emerge as the most actively traded counter, recording a turnover of KES 428.87Mn. This was a significant decline from KES 2,421.64Mn to KES 428.87Mn largely attributed by a decline in foreign activity in the counter. This was as its volumes shrunk by 82.3% from 86.10Mn to 15.25Mn shares, while the share price inched down 0.9% to KES 27.95 per share.
Equity Group ranked second, posting a turnover of KES 321.53Mn after 4.97Mn shares changed hands this week, down from 35.16Mn shares traded the prior week. The counter gained 5.2% to close at KES 65.75 per share.
KCB Group followed closely with a turnover of KES 191.54Mn, with a contraction in volumes traded to 3.o8Mn shares. The share price appreciated by 0.4%, closing at KES 62.50.
On the gainers’ board, Olympia Capital led with a 20.4% rise, closing at KES 8.14 per share from KES 6.76 last week. Scangroup came second with a 16.6% gain from KES 2.23 to KES 2.60, closely followed by Umeme Ltd at 8.2% gain to close at KES 7.92 per share from KES 7.32 the Friday before.
[Graph in PDF]
Bonds Market
Bond market activity weakened during the week due to the festive season with the value traded dwindling by 60.91% to KES 27.07Bn, down from KES 69.26Bn in the previous week. The number of deals also dropped by 48.43% from 956 to 493 transactions.
The FXD1/2012/15yr bond, emerged as the most actively traded paper, recording a turnover of KES 4.04Bn. This was followed by the FXD1/2021/25yr bond, issued in December, posting a KES 2.39Bn turnover during the week.
Looking ahead, we anticipate a continued slowdown in market activity in the coming week as the festivities dampen trading momentum.
Yield Curve
The yield curve shifted downwards in the last week of the year, largely supported by ample liquidity and the ongoing transmission of recent rate cuts into the market.
The short end of the curve (4–8 years) recorded a downward adjustment, contrary to what was seen the previous week. This shift appears to have been driven by the final end-of-year portfolio rebalancing activities by institutional investors before the end of year reporting. Similarly, the long end (15–20 years) also experienced a downward pressure, with activity largely signaling an increase in demand for long term papers.
Looking ahead we expect a moderate downward shift as investors prepare for the New Year.
[Graph in PDF]
Interbank
Low liquidity demand saw the interbank rate rise marginally in the last week of December by 2.9bps from 8.98% to 9.01%. Moreover, average interbank rose by 0.9bps from 8.99% to 9.00%.
The market closing demand dipped 39.4% w-w from KES 10.72Bn to KES 6.50Bn to pull down the average weekly demand 42.0% down from KES 11.28Bn to KES 6.54Bn clearly depicting little to no funding pressure by banks.
Bank excess reserves contracted 30.4% down from KES 23.7Bn to KES 16.5Bn largely attributed by the rebalancing activities by financial institutions as well as reduced credit demand before the festive seasons officially kicked off.
[Graph in PDF]
Treasury Bills
The weekly Treasury bills auction was undersubscribed at 22.6%, attracting KES 5.41Bn in bids against the KES 24.0Bn, with KES 5.41Bn accepted.
Investor appetite was evenly distributed across the 364 day, 182 day and 91 day paper with all the papers being undersubscribed by 22.8%, 7.12% and 60.36% respectively. This was largely due to a slowdown in activity in the market ahead of the festive season.
The auction outcome was supported by KES 11.01Bn in Treasury bill maturities paid out on 22nd December 2025. Additionally, a further KES5.26Bn is scheduled to mature in the coming week, on the 29th of December 2025.
[Graph in PDF]
Currency
The Kenyan shilling was relatively stable, closing at KES 129.00 per US dollar. During the period, the currency also recorded marginal losses against the British Pound, Japanese yen and Euro, depreciating by 1.1%, 0.1% and 0.7% respectively.
On a year-to-date basis, the shilling has appreciated by 0.2% against the US dollar, supported by a steady build-up in foreign exchange reserves, despite ongoing pressure from external debt servicing obligations.
Foreign exchange reserves increased to USD 12.17Bn, equivalent to 5.30 months of import cover, remaining comfortably above the Central Bank of Kenya’s statutory minimum requirement of 4.0 months. The accumulation of reserves continues to be strengthened by resilient diaspora remittances and strong agricultural export receipts which continue to offset exchange pressure from imports.
Diaspora remittance inflows stood at USD 388.3Mn in November 2025, reflecting a modest decline from October. On a year-on-year basis, inflows decreased by 8.3% compared to USD 423.2Mn recorded in November 2024. However, 12-month cumulative remittance inflows to November 2025 rose by 3.6% to USD 5.05Bn, up from USD 4.87Bn over the same period in 2024.
