MARKET DATA REVIEW: Dar bourse’s weekly turnover increases by 63 per cent

The Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange’s turnover improved by 815 per cent last week.

There are two major encouraging statements that came to our attention recently, these statements came from the government: (i) the possibility of repossession of previously privatised state owned entities that were sold to some investors; and (ii) state owned entities, agencies and parastatals are now required to refocus on becoming more efficient and raise their financial needs from the local financial market.

>Privatisation is the process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency, public service, or public property from the public sector (a government) to the private sector.

The Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) turnover rose suddenly last week as the bourse attracted local and foreign investors.

Demutualisation of stock exchanges has captured media headlines in recent years — it seems like most exchanges are doing it (except for Africa, for obvious reasons). A number of exchanges across the globe have demutualised since this idea came into the public attention, especially after the first incident of demutualisation by the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1993.

>If an investor had invested similar amount of money across 14 domestic listed companies on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE), the annualized capital gain return would have been 4.5 per cent. As the table below indicates – share valuation for some companies have grown up above 30 per cent while a few companies have lost – these are the normal workings of the market.

>Let’s start the New Year, 2015 by going back to the basics: What does owning shares mean? What is a share? Who can issue shares, Who can invest in shares etc etc.

At different phases of our socio-economic development agenda and objective, various policies, strategies and approaches have been chosen, for different purposes, some of the objectives relate to economic inclusiveness and empowerment to local citizens. I want to focus on the privatisation as a tool towards achieving inclusive economic growth.

>At the heart of investment, particularly investment in listed shares or any other such investable asset classes is the simple question: is the investment rational? The answer to this question might not be as crystal clear or self-evident in some cases.