The international financial research and investment advisory firm has included Standard Chartered Bank Kenya in its frontier markets index, bringing it in line with Cooperative Bank, Safaricom, Equity Group, East African Breweries Ltd (EABL) and KCB Group.
The index has also included housing financier HF Group in its frontier markets small cap index, alongside BAT Kenya, KenGen, Kenya Re, and DTB Group.
Bank stocks revitalized the Nairobi Securities Exchange in 2024. The most recent updates will take effect after business hours on February 28, 2025, MSCI stated on February 11.
The inclusion of the additional stocks broadens the pool of stocks accessible to foreign investors on the National Stock Exchange, which could potentially increase foreign investment flows at a time when the market has generally experienced net outflows from international investors.
MSCI conducts quarterly reviews of its indices in February, May, August, and November, enabling it to include or exclude components and adjust the weighting of constituents within an index.
The reviews are intended to provide investors with a current snapshot of the stock market, enabling them to make well-informed investment choices.
The MSCI index monitors the performance of international equity, bond, and real estate markets and provides recommendations to foreign institutional investors, such as pension funds, on which markets to invest in.
It also categorizes markets as developing, emerging, frontier, and standalone.
According to official data from the NSE, market turnover increased by 20 percent to Ksh105.23 billion ($815.73 million) in 2024, from Ksh88.23 billion ($683.95 million) in 2023, marking the first annual growth in equity trading activity since 2018.
The last time the NSE recorded a positive annual equity market turnover was in 2018, when it increased to 175.65 billion Kenyan shillings, or $1.36 billion, from 171.61 billion Kenyan shillings, or $1.33 billion, in 2017.
Market turnover shows the extent of trading activity occurring in the entire market, or in specific stocks, on a particular business day.
Share turnover is a measure of liquidity that reflects how easily an investor can convert a stock into cash.
The equity market experienced a turnaround in 2024, ending a period of decline, with the market value of listed shares increasing to $14.72 billion from $10.85 billion in 2023.
The benchmark indices made significant gains, with the NSE 20-share index increasing by 33.94 percent (509.49 points) to close the year (2024) at 2010.65, and the NSE All Share Index rising by 42.96 percent (1,022.57 points) to 3,402.8 over the same period.
The NSE Bond Market achieved a major milestone by surpassing Ksh1 trillion ($7.75 billion) in cumulative turnover (from January 2 to August 21, 2024) for the first time in its history, thanks to strategic bond reforms, including the introduction of a hybrid fixed income market. Syndigate.info ).