USE registers decline in first quarter equity performance

KAMPALA- Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) registered a decline of Shs2.5 billion in turnover in the first quarter of 2014, blamed on lack of major corporate activities like new listings on the stock exchange.

The decline was also attributed to investors’ activity which in a way slowed down activities in the stock exchange as most investors decided to wait and see whether listed companies made profits in 2013 financial results.

The statistics
Statistics at USE indicate that in the first quarter of 2014, the volume of shares traded in the period stood at 158,108,931, which resulted into a total turnover of Shs16.8 billion.

Last year during quarter one, the total volume of shares traded was 174,566,407, which totalled to Shs19.4 billion.
Research associate at African Alliance Uganda Limited, Amanda Bbosa told the Daily Monitor in an interview recently that the first quarter performance declined by 15.2 per cent from Shs19.9 billion in 2013 to Shs16.9 billion in the same period in 2014.

Ms Bbosa said the high turnover in 2013 was boosted by post IPO trading on the Umeme counter.

“The current quarter has, however, registered an increase in investor confidence in the market evident in a surge in share prices as opposed to volumes. This pushed the Local Share Index higher from 227.2 in the previous quarter to 270.79 reflecting an increase of 19.2 per cent,” he said.

On the outlook of the stock exchange for this year, Ms Bbosa remained optimistic saying: “We have a positive outlook for 2014 with expected listings and corporate actions on the market.

International sentiment still views Sub Saharan Africa as the world’s fastest-growing region after developing Asia, so we anticipate increased foreign investor interest in the Ugandan market going forward.”

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