Shares Portfolio November 2011

Comparing changes to three months ago and a year ago, investor confidence has dipped further, and the Kenya shilling is even weaker, having fallen past the Kshs. 100/$ to the dollar before last week’s drastic rate hike by the Central Bank brought the rate back to to 95, but which also pushed most commercial banks loan rates to 25%

The Stable
Barclays Bank ↓
Bralirwa Breweries (Rwanda) ↑
British-American Investments (Britak) ↓
Diamond Trust Bank ↓
East African Breweries (EABL) ↓
Kenya Airways (KQ) ↓
Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) ↓
Kenya Oil Company (Kenol) ↓
Scangroup ↓
Stanbic (Uganda) ↔
Uchumi Supermarkets ↓

Review: The Portfolio is down 2% in the last three months as is the NSE 20 Share Index, which is also down 2%.
– Best performer: Bralirwa 24% (only share that has appreciated in this Qquarter)
– Worst performer: Britak -38%, Kenya Airways -25%
– In: Britak
– Out: None
– Increase: KCB, KQ
– Decrease: None

Other
Splits: None
Bonus: None
Dividends: Interim from Kenol, and Barclays, and it was pleasant to be able to encash a Bralirwa Rwanda dividend cheque over the counter at KCB in Nairobi – unlike with Stanbic (UG) Uganda, that takes about a month clearing and the bank charges can take a huge chunk out.

Events:
– Safaricom shocked with a 47% drop in half year profits to September 2011.
– Kenya Airways got shareholder approval for a rights issue to finance fleet expansion in the next few months (Said to be at Kshs 21/= which is about where the share is now.
– Tanzania has the Precision Air IPO and Tanzania Breweries sale but the mixed signals – welcoming/shutting out East Africans, and not getting proper approval from Kenya’s capital markets means there’s likely to be little cross-border participation once results are announced.

Data: The NSE now has a shares app for Android mobile phones and signed a partnership creating two new FTSE NSE indices.