The share price of the insurance and financial services firmCIC Group at the Nairobi Securities Exchange rose by close to 10 per cent on the eve of Valentine's Day after the firm announced a Sh1.8 billion capital injection into its balance sheet.
This is after the firm sold a 50-acre block neighbouring Tatu City and 100 acres in Kajiado.
The proceeds are aimed at enhancing the insurer's capital position, as the Insurance Regulatory Authority heavily discounts land assets, preferring liquid assets for claim settlements.
Data from the Nairobi bourse shows the insurer's share price closed the week at Sh5.52, recording a 9.1 per cent gain over its previous closing price of Sh5.06.
The firm's shareholders have gained close to a shilling per share after the firm began the year at Sh4.57 and has since gained 20.8 per cent from that level, ranking it 15th on the NSE in terms of year-to-date performance.
Analysts say that shareholders can be optimistic about CIC, knowing the stock has accrued 19 per cent over the past four-week period, 13th best on NSE.
Other firms that saw share prices surge in a week and shareholders' paper wealth rise to a high of Sh3.42 trillion include Kenya RE, NSE Car and General and Home Afrika.
The week delivered Sh220.31 billion, making it the strongest week for investor wealth creation since 2008 on available records.
The gain surpassed prior peak weeks such as 2019-W44 (Sh211.68 billion) and 2025-W24 (Sh175.58 billion), placing the current surge at the top of the historical distribution of weekly expansions.
The NSE All Share Index advanced for six consecutive sessions to a record 216.69, posting a 6.9 per cent week-on-week gain, its strongest weekly advance since mid-June 2025 and the third strongest since March 2024. The NSE Banking Sector Index closed at an all-time high of 237.12.
Newer benchmarks also printed records, with the NSE 10 Index at 2,252 and the NSE 25 Index at 5,855.41. The NSE 20 Share Index, the exchange’s oldest benchmark, rose to 3,633.13, its highest level since May 2018.
The bull run at NSE is attributed to the launch of Ziidi Trader, a feature inside the M-Pesa app that enables users to buy and sell Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) shares directly from their mobile wallet.
The platform includes watchlists, price alerts, and portfolio tracking. The platform is expected to lower barriers to stock market participation and expand retail activity on the exchange.
Unveiled early last week, Safaricom’s Ziidi Trader pushed daily equity deals above 20,000 for three consecutive sessions, breaking long-standing records.
Daily deal counts, which had typically ranged between 4,000 and 7,800 from October through January, jumped to 8,713 on the first day of the pilot before accelerating sharply to a record 25,773 on February 11, followed by 24,357 on Thursday, and 23,608 on Friday.
Market capitalisation, equity turnover and total shares traded 5.3 percent, 63.6 per cent and 80.8 per cent, respectively.
The Treasury bill auction of February 12 received bids totalling Sh74.1 billion against an advertised amount of Sh24 billion, despite yields declining, representing a performance of 308.8 per cent.
The reopened 15-year and 25-year Treasury bonds received bids totaling Sh213.8 billion against an advertised amount of Sh50 billion, representing a performance of 427.5 per cent.
Bond turnover in the domestic secondary market increased by 2.08 per cent to Sh65.5 billion compared to Sh64.1 billion reported in the previous week.
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