Co-op and DTB attract investors in quatre one

Banking stocks continue to attract investors eying hefty dividends from anticipated profits in the first quarter of 2025.

Stock market analysts reported growing interest by investors in Cooperative Bank, Absa, KCB, DTB and Equity Holdings. There was reduced activities on Stanbic Bank counter, a day after being among least gainers at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) on the day it released Q1, 2025 results.

This is after it reported a 16.6 per cent drop in net profit for Q1 2025 to Sh3.33 billion, down from Sh3.99 billion a year earlier. The performance was impacted by reduced lending activity and lower foreign exchange income, though the lender retained robust capital and liquidity buffers.

Investors showed greater interest in Cooperative Bank Group share which is set to distribute dividends to its shareholders including over 600 Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (Sacco) this coming month.

Co-op Bank Group share closed last week at Sh14.20, 17.8 per cent above the 52-weeks low of 12.05. It is currently the seventh most valuable stock on the NSE with a market capitalisation of Sh83.6 billion, which is about 4.22 per cent of NSE.

There were also increased activities at Absa Bank which grew 0.6 per cent gain over its previous closing price of Sh16.55. Absa began the year with a share price of Sh18.05 but has since lost 7.76 per cent off that price valuation, ranking it 50th on the NSE in terms of year-to-date performance.

KCB Group, DTB and Equity Bank Group counters expected to release results for the first three months of the year this week also reported increased activities.

Generally, the Nairobi bourse reported increased activities during the week, with the market capitalisation increasing 0.04 per cent while total shares traded rose by 10.4 per cent while equity turnover increased by 144.4 per cent.

The NASI increased by 0.04 per cent while the NSE 25 and NSE 20 share price indices decreased by 0.88 per cent, and two per cent, respectively.

The Treasury bill auction of May 8 received bids totaling Sh52.7 billion against an advertised amount of Sh24 billion, representing a performance of 219.5 per cent.

Interest rate on the 91-day, 182-day and 364-day Treasury bills remained stable, with banks opting to lend to the government more than the private sector in the week of a draft policy by the National Treasury seeking to control rates and remove risk-based loan pricing.

Market analysts are anticipating yields on the government papers to start rising after sinking weekly for the past 30 weeks.

During the Treasury bond auction of May 7, the reopened 25-year fixed rate treasury bond received bids totaling Sh54.4 billion against an advertised amount of Sh30 billion, representing a performance of 181.3 per cent.

Bond turnover in the domestic secondary market decreased by 23.86 per cent during the week ending May 8.  In the international market, yields on Kenya’s Eurobonds increased by 2.8 basis points on average.