NSE Update

These are anything but serene times at our bourse. Fundamentals have now been taken off the table and investors and traders alike are indulging in fear. The thing is contagious so we need not feel like we are the only ones who can't think straight when all around us everything is going stupid. We breached the 4,000 line without a whimper and depending on this weekend's G7 talks may even drift (or is it hurtle?) towards 3,500. Thanks D&B for your clever float of Safaricom.

Safcom continues to be the victim of our so-called NSE foreignisation policy. Some muppet at D&B thinking only of the commission to be accrued never realised the other side of the coin i.e. decoupling can be good for a small stock exchange such as ours. So will the NSE be taking up the new fad of halting trading for hours if not days? It all depends on how much the brokers will put their selfish interests before the wide market. If commission is king (as I think it tends to be), then there is no chance of us copying the "take a break" route. My preference would be we continue trading and even bring in CO-OP. I might be tempted to widen my net and look at other stocks in such a situation. I have price targets below which some stocks become too cheap not to buy. Imagine even BBK is now becoming tempting if it goes below Ksh40. ARM though remains impervious to any of the bearish stuff and I think it will rise next week following this announcement which will scale up its cement business.

Speaking of Coop, with a week or so to go before its due start date of October 20th, nothing much has been heard. I received a questionnaire some time back from D&B, but that is all I've heard. I really hope its floated now as it might be the only chance we get of a full subscription.