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NSE ranks second in Africa with 52pc dollar returns in 2025
MSCI data shows that Egypt’s stock exchange led with a gain of 99 percent to 743 points during the year, while NSE returned 52.2 percent, closing at 1,391.28 points on December 31, 2025.
Blue-chip stocks on the Nairobi bourse offered foreign investors the second-highest dollarised returns in 2025 among the 10 African markets tracked by the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) frontier and emerging market indices.
MSCI data shows that Egypt’s stock exchange led with a gain of 99 percent to 743 points during the year, supported by double-digit share price growth among its largest companies, including CIB Bank and TMG Holding, and a 6.2 percent appreciation of the Egyptian pound against the dollar in 2025.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), which is represented by 18 companies on the MSCI frontier and small-cap indices, returned 52.2 percent, closing at 1,391.28 points on December 31, 2025.
Nigeria ranked third with a return of 47.2 percent, followed by Zimbabwe (44.5 percent), Côte d’Ivoire (43.6 percent), Morocco (36.3 percent) and Tunisia (32.5 percent).
South Africa posted a gain of 30.1 percent and Senegal 23.4 percent, while Mauritius trailed with an annual gain of 2.2 percent.
The MSCI indices track the performance of selected large and medium-sized companies across stock exchanges, offering them visibility to deep-pocketed foreign investors — a factor that boosts liquidity and price discovery.
South Africa, which has Africa’s largest and most liquid stock market, and Egypt are classified as emerging markets by MSCI, while the rest are listed as frontier markets.
On the NSE, Safaricom, Equity Group, EABL, KCB Group, Co-operative Bank of Kenya and Standard Chartered Bank Kenya were listed on the MSCI frontier markets index as of the most recent review in November 2025.
BAT Kenya, KenGen, Kenya Re, Kenya Power, DTB Group, Carbacid Investments, Jubilee Holdings, CIC Insurance Group, Williamson Tea Kenya, Centum Investment Company and HF Group were listed on the MSCI frontier markets small-cap index.
The NSE was Africa’s top-performing market in 2024 on the MSCI index, posting a gain of 65.3 percent, supported by a 21 percent appreciation of the shilling against the dollar.
An appreciating local currency boosts foreign investors’ returns by delivering exchange gains, as they receive more dollars on exit compared with their entry cost. Conversely, currency depreciation reduces repatriated dollar returns.
Exchange rate movements are, therefore, a key consideration for foreign investors, as they can amplify or erode returns relative to local currency performance.
Last year, the shilling was largely unchanged against the dollar, gaining 0.1 percent, meaning dollarised returns for the Kenyan market closely mirrored shilling-based returns.
Among companies listed on the MSCI Kenya frontier index, the top gainers were Safaricom at 66.3 percent, KCB Group at 58.1 percent and EABL at 49.9 percent. Safaricom carries the largest weighting on the index due to its market capitalisation and liquidity.
On the small-cap index, the strongest performers were Kenya Power (182.7 percent), KenGen (152.2 percent), Kenya Re (135.2 percent) and HF Group (120.8 percent). However, their lower weighting relative to large-cap stocks limited their impact on Kenya’s overall return.
→ cmwaniki@ke.nationmedia.com
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