NSE BRIEF
NO. 1

A record market, carried by six names

The NSE has spent 2026 re-rating. The all-share index sits at 254.60 and market capitalisation touched a record KES 4.17 trillion in late August, with banks, energy and insurance doing most of the lifting. Safaricom alone is roughly 37% of the market; the next five names are all banks. The index is broad, the money is not.

Thursday 3 September 2026 · Prices as of 3 Sept 2026

Data currency

Prices for SCOM, EQTY, KCB, EABL, SCBK and COOP are as of 3 Sept 2026 (mystocks.africa). ABSA, NCBA, SBIC, IMH, BAT and KEGN are last quoted 27 Aug 2026 (mansamarkets). Index level, market capitalisation and the listed-securities count are as of 27 Aug 2026. Valuation multiples (P/E, P/B, ROE) are not yet wired to a data source and are shown as em-dashes rather than estimates.

Listed securities
71

Equities, REITs, ETFs and preference shares.

Market cap
4.17trn KES

Record high; was KES 4.13trn days earlier.

NSE all-share index
254.60+0.75%

All-share index. Record territory after a bank-led run.

Central bank rate
8.75%

Central Bank Rate, held steady through the third quarter.

Listed companies
Market capitalisation by company
KES billions. Safaricom is roughly 37% of the whole exchange.
Ninety-day price change
Percent, for the six names with a current quote. Banks lead.
Macro
NSE all-share index254.60 (+0.75%)

All-share index. Record territory after a bank-led run.

Market capitalisationKES 4.17 trn

Record high; was KES 4.13trn days earlier.

Central Bank Rate8.75%

Central Bank Rate, held steady through the third quarter.

USD / KES129.43

Shilling floating and stable — no meaningful parallel-market premium.

01

One stock is more than a third of the market

Safaricom's KES 1.54 trillion capitalisation is about 37% of the exchange's KES 4.17 trillion. The next five names — Equity, KCB, EABL, Co-op and Absa — add roughly KES 1.35 trillion between them. Six securities out of seventy-one carry roughly two-thirds of the market's value.

That concentration is the single most important fact about the NSE as an index. The all-share index is not a read on seventy-one Kenyan companies; it is mostly a read on one telco and five banks, and it moves when they move.

02

The re-rating has been led by banks, not by the telco

Over the past ninety days KCB is up about 41%, Equity about 36%, EABL 21%, Safaricom 21%, Co-op 19%. Standard Chartered, already the most expensive bank on a per-share basis, has added under 3%.

The pattern is a market repricing bank earnings after a rate-cutting cycle rather than chasing a growth story. Cheaper money lifts loan books and lowers the discount on future earnings, and Kenyan banks entered the cycle trading well below their historical multiples.

03

The macro backdrop is doing the work

The Central Bank Rate sits at 8.75% and has been held steady, well down from the tightening peak. The shilling is trading near 129 to the dollar and has been unusually stable — and unlike the Ethiopian birr, there is no meaningful parallel market to track alongside it.

A stable currency plus falling policy rates is the classic setup for a domestic equity re-rating, and that is close to what the last two quarters have delivered.

04

What this edition cannot yet tell you

Valuation multiples are missing. Without P/E, P/B and ROE the brief can describe direction and concentration, but it cannot yet answer whether the banks are still cheap after a 40% run — which is the question that actually matters.

That gap needs a data source wired in behind the app. Until then this edition reports prices, capitalisation and macro, and says nothing about fair value.

CASE NOTE 01

If six securities are two-thirds of the index, is the NSE all-share index a useful benchmark for a Kenyan equity investor?

The NASI is capitalisation-weighted across all seventy-one listed securities. A portfolio tracking it would hold roughly 37% Safaricom and roughly 30% in five banks.

  1. a.Yes — it reflects the investable market as it actually exists, and concentration is a fact about Kenya's economy, not a flaw in the index.
  2. b.No — a benchmark that is two-thirds six names measures those six names, and an equal-weighted or capped index would say more about the market's breadth.
  3. c.It depends on the question — NASI is the right benchmark for market exposure, the wrong one for judging whether Kenyan listed companies in aggregate are doing well.

Pick one and say what evidence would change your mind.

Sources