Active participation of foreign investors in equities propelled a fivefold jump in turnover on the Uganda Securities Exchange in the second quarter of 2015, compared with the same period last year.

The USE reported a turnover of Ush52.34 billion ($14.1 million) compared with Ush10 billion ($2.7 million) in quarter 2 of 2014.

 

Power distributor Umeme's counter contributed 86.71 per of the turnover, followed by DFCU at 10.4 per cent, Stanbic at 6.5 per cent while National Insurance Corporation (NIC), Bank of Baroda Uganda (Bobu), New Vision Printing and Publishing Company Ltd (NVL), Centum and Uganda Clays, each weighed in at less than 0.5 per cent.

 

The volume of shares traded reached 202 million, a 53 per cent rise over the 132 million shares traded in the same period last year.

 

According to USE chief executive officer Paul Bwiso, the capital markets have been bullish since the beginning of the year, which has attracted foreign investors.

 

"A large number of shares were being offloaded in the market, which foreign investors considered cheap and worth investing in because of the good valuation of the companies," said Mr Bwiso.

Source : allafrica.com