NAIROBI, Kenya, April 26 – Kenya’s capital markets regulator said Monday that the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict is negatively impacting the markets’ performance.
Following the onset of the conflict, the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) recorded a loss of 92 billion shillings (about 795 million U.S. dollars), the biggest loss the Kenyan bourse has registered since March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic first struck, Wyckliffe Shamiah, chief executive officer of the Capital Markets Authority, told reporters here.
Shamiah noted that under the combined impact of the conflict and the politics ahead of the August elections in Kenya, the risk of volatility in the NSE indices remain a key concern.
“The authority will commit to monitoring the impact of these events on the NSE indices through the Capital Markets Soundness Stability indicators for increased transparency,” he added.
The capital markets regulator said that foreign investors who account for a significant portion of daily trading activities have taken a wait-and-see approach given the uncertainty caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“The capital market authority is working closely in conjunction with the NSE to continue to monitor any exposures that the Kenyan market could suffer from its heavy reliance on foreign investors,” he said, adding that a raft of measures have been proposed to promote domestic investor participation to form a buffer against severe shocks that could greatly affect foreign investor activities at the bourse.
