Housing Finance, I&M shares fall despite profit gains

Housing Finance share price dropped marginally while I&M Holding remained flat despite the two lenders declaring profit gains, signalling low investor appetite for bank stocks.

HF, which reported a 7.8 per cent profit growth, saw its share trade at an average Sh14.55 down from Monday’s Sh14.70 while I&M, which recorded a 16.4 per cent growth did not have any activity, remaining at Sh95 a unit.

HF reported a net profit at the end of quarter three of Sh837.7 million compared to Sh777.4 million in a similar period a year earlier, driven by earnings from government securities and loans.

I&M posted a profit of Sh4.9 billion up from Sh4.2 billion a year ago buoyed by a growing loan book.

Standard Investment Bank noted that foreign investors were net buyers in Tuesday trading after four consecutive sessions of net selling.

“Foreign investor participation remained high at 70 per cent,” said SIB in a note to investors.

The indicative NSE 20 Share Index declined by 16.41 points to close the day at 3267.53 points while the NSE All Share Index shed a marginal 0.19 points to end the day at 138.01 points.

Market capitalisation dropped below the Sh2 trillion mark while equity turnover increased to Sh426 billion from Sh294 billion, on account of the movement of 19.84 million shares.

Telecommunications giant, Safaricom was the largest mover with 12,827,400 shares traded at an average Sh19.95.