NSE weekly catch up: bear rally?

NSE closed up almost 10% from its Monday opening with demand unmatched by supply on some stocks. Some of this seems to be being driven by the rising water effect i.e. Western markets rising and picking up everything else globally. Some might be illusionary however and nimbling rather than chunky bites of share-buying is advisable. Reason being nothing has fundamnetally changed from last week or the week before. Still, fortune favors the brave and the pickup might extend to one or two weeks before reality sinks in. From my point of view, I may exit one of my bigger positions because gains made from fx rates alone mean I can walk away and come back later once things come back to earth.

Results:

DTB announced 48% rise on prior year and with a regional footprint, looks set to compete with the likes of KCB and Equity for the fastest growing banks in EA. As I mentioned previously, I remain a big fan of this bank and especially because of its AKD connection. Would prefer it to KCB ( higher EPS (therefore lower fwd P/E); much much lower NPLs and a broader footprint regionally). DPS is ksh1.40 payable in June.

NBK grew by 10% from 2007! And deposits actually fell by 1% which does limit its ability to grow the loanbook going forward. I don't know how NBK shareholders can optimistically look forward to a dividend in 2010. And there is the prospect of the OFS later in the year.

Macroview: UK got trashed by this blogger when he was appointed FM, but made two positive announcements this week. The freeze on expenditure is way overdue, and the only disappointment is that it didn't go further and sink to be used as arguement for rationalising governance. Still, I think implementing will be much harder. Some cash should definitely be set aside for his PS to travel to Iceland, Mexico, Argentina among others to learn than yes GoK can get broke. The 2nd positive announcement was to manage expectations downwards on economic growth. 3.5% is doable where anything above 4% would have been a stretch.

Other markets:

I'm gonna make a call. FTSE has priced in most of the bad news and has either bottomed or will in the next few weeks. The only remaining pieces are Yanqui sorting their banking industry and the UK treasury's decision on how it'll treat Barclays' request for inusurance vs its toxic stuff. At close of business jana, Barclays the parent was trading at Ksh75 while BBK was trading at Ksh39. Go figure. Tullow Oil announced another oil find in Ghana and 80% growth in profits. Time for me to exit though...

Another IPO coming at DSE. Fuller details later.

Finally:

Jack Welch has apparently changed his mind about the place of shareholders in a listed firm's priority list. And Babcock & Brown, an IB that was being considered for a role in RVR collapsed jana.