Kenya’s financial markets were calm on Friday when trading resumed after a two-day presidential re-run break in what traders said was investors waiting for the vote result and any reaction from the main Opposition party.

The shilling opened the session at 103.75/95 to the dollar, largely unchanged from Tuesday’s close, but holding at a two-month low it dropped to at the end of last week.

“We expect the shilling to trade sideways as we wait for the results this weekend. We will get the direction from next week once we get a clear view of the political situation,” said a trader at a local commercial bank.

“The election were largely peaceful and having a sitting president will give a semblance of stability for the markets,” he added.

Low voter turnout

A repeat presidential vote ordered by the Supreme Court took place on Thursday amid low voter turnout and violence in opposition strongholds in western and some coastal parts of the country.

Chaos in four counties allied to the main opposition leader Raila Odinga, who boycotted the repeat vote, forced the electoral body (IEBC) to postpone election there.

Only about 35 per cent of the 19 million registered voters turned up for the ballot, IEBC’s top official said.

At the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), trading was lacklustre when the market opened, with analysts attributing the low activity to the absence of foreign and institutional investors in the market.

Upward move

“The market generally has some slight upward moves on select counters though on small volume,” Ronald Lugalia, head of trading at Kingdom Securities, told the Business Daily.

“Only retailers are in the market. Institutional investors have been out of the market for past 4 weeks reporting for 3rd quarter.”

Uncertainty over the presidential election wiped out over Sh227 billion in capitalisation at the NSE since August 25 as investors, mostly foreigners jolted by the political uncertainty, exited the market.

Mbithe Muema, head of equity sales at Exotix Capital, said in a note on Wednesday that she expected financial markets to pick up in performance after Thursday’s vote as uncertainty over the presidential re-run subsides.