Refinitiv Partners With Nairobi Stock Exchange to Enhance Transparency of Secondary Fixed Income Market in Kenya

 KENYA – Refinitiv partnered with the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) to enhance Fixed Income (FI) price discovery and raise market transparency in Kenya.

As part of the partnership, the NSE will roll out Refinitiv Fixed Income Callouts in Kenya, an automated workflow that facilitates negotiations and agreements of secondary Fixed Income (FI) bond trading among banks, brokerage firms, and real-time integration with the Central Securities Depository (CSD).

The primary FI market has been steadily growing in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as governments explore better access to financing. According to the 2020 Refinitiv investment banking review, SSA debt issuance totalled US$19.0 billion in 2020. With the increased accessibility to technology, electronic trading has emerged as a significant channel to the growth of a secondary FI market across the continent.

The deployment of Refinitiv’s solution will enable the NSE to benefit from an automated Over the Counter (OTC) FI workflow that is integrated in real time with both, the Securities Exchange and the CSD in Kenya.

Geoffrey Odundo, Chief Executive Officer, Nairobi Securities Exchange, said: “We are excited to be working with Refinitiv and the fixed income community to drive innovations in our market and adopt global best practices. Refinitiv’s trading workflow combined with NSE’s post-trade system will help us improve trade life cycle, reduce operational risks and encourage price discovery and transparency in the market.”

Nadim Najjar, Managing Director, Middle East and Africa, Refinitiv, said, “We are proud to partner with the NSE and the local regulators to foster transparency, latency and liquidity. Refinitiv Fixed Income Callouts will allow market participants to benefit from real-time price discovery across bonds and bills. The deployment will also facilitate collaboration among Kenyan banks, brokerage firms, and the CSD.”

“The Kenyan financial markets have seen significant growth over the past few years. This partnership reinforces our commitment to enable the local regulators and financial community with advanced technologies and workflows to achieve efficiency and growth. The adoption of Refinitiv Fixed Income Callouts will create an effective market infrastructure, build greater long-term confidence amongst investors, and ensure strong governance processes,” he added.

Stock Market Gains as AIICO, Zenith Bank, Flour Mills, Others Close in the Green

Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed in the green as stocks of AIICO, Livestock, Flour Mills, Zenith Bank and others closed strong.

Investors traded 337.955 million shares valued at N3.845 billion in 5,232 transactions during the trading hours of Tuesday.

The market value of listed equities grew by N5 billion from N21.009 trillion on Monday to N21.014 trillion on Tuesday while the NSE All-Share Index gained 0.03 percent from 40,154.09 index points recorded on Monday to 40,164.86 index points.

FBNH led the most trade stocks with 64,588,247 shares valued at N471,801,052.30 as shown below.

Top Trades

Top Losers

Top Gainers

Tech Shares Tumble a Second Day as Yields Climb: Markets Wrap

Technology shares sold off for a second day amid growing concerns that valuations for high-flying stocks are stretched as interest rates rise and the global economy moves closer to reopening.

The Nasdaq 100 slumped more than 2% as the tech-heavy gauge headed to its longest losing streak since 2019. Tesla Inc. dropped as much as 13% as investors continued to punish stocks that have led the rally from the depths of the pandemic a year ago. Cyclical shares set to benefit from the end of pandemic lockdowns outperformed, limiting losses for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. A similar rotation was underway in European stocks.

So-called growth shares are having their worst month against value counterparts in more than two decades as vaccination campaigns gather pace and bond yields climb. Bets on faster growth and higher rates have pushed the gap between 5- and 30-year yields to the highest level in more than six years.

Investors are growing concerned that broad equity benchmarks have already priced in much of the prospective global recovery spurred by vaccines and U.S. stimulus.

“We’re starting to see some people take some money off the table,” said Megan Horneman, director of portfolio strategy at Verdence Capital Advisors. “The side of the market that has been so overvalued for so long is the tech side and those bigger growth names, so we’re seeing some rotation.”

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signaled that the central bank was nowhere close to pulling back on its support for the pandemic-damaged U.S. economy even as he voiced expectations for a return to more normal, improved activity later this year.

“The economy is a long way from our employment and inflation goals, and it is likely to take some time for substantial further progress to be achieved,” he said in the text of testimony to be delivered Tuesday to the Senate Banking Committee.

Elsewhere, stocks in Asia were mostly higher. Bitcoin retreated below $50,000 after a bout of volatility highlighted lingering doubts about the durability of the token’s rally.

Some key events to watch this week:

• EIA crude oil inventory report is out Wednesday.
• Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 will meet virtually Friday. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will be among the attendees.

These are some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• The S&P 500 Index declined 1.2% as of 10:02 a.m. New York time.
• The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 1%.
• The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.2%.
• The MSCI Emerging Market Index fell 0.6%.

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained 0.1%.
• The euro fell 0.1% to $1.215.
• The British pound rose 0.1% to $1.4077.
• The Japanese yen weakened 0.3% to 105.38 per dollar.

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose two basis points to 1.38%.
• Germany’s 10-year yield jumped five basis points to -0.29%.
• Britain’s 10-year yield rose seven basis points to 0.75%.

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.4% to $61.50 a barrel.
• Gold fell 0.5% to $1,800.96 an ounce.