The share of trading activity at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) attributed to foreign investors grew to an average of 46.68 percent during the three months ended June 2025, rebounding from a fall witnessed in the preceding quarter as jitters over anticipated US tariffs suppressed investor sentiment.
In the quarter to March 2025, the participation of foreigners had fallen to 38.24 percent, down from a higher 43.83 percent during the three months ended December 2024.
New data from the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) shows that foreign participation remained largely towering at 59.51 percent in April before falling off a cliff to 36.06 percent in May and later rising to 44.47 percent in June.
“The average foreign investor participation in quarter two 2025 was 46.68 percent, indicating an 8.44 percent surge from an average of 38.24 percent recorded in quarter one 2025,” wrote the CMA in its latest quarterly statistical bulletin.
During the quarter under review, the number of foreign corporate investors trading in equities dropped marginally to 381, down from 391 in the preceding quarter, while foreign individual investors shrank from 8,046 to 7,997.
The participation by foreigners during the three months was, however, a dip from the average of 57.29 percent recorded during a similar quarter last year.
In June, the foreigners made net purchases at the NSE, marking the first time in nine months that they bought more shares than they sold amid appreciation in the prices of key stocks.
The net purchases by foreign investors during the month stood at Sh820.33 million, compared to Sh146.63 million net sales in the previous month, according to data compiled by AIB-AXYS, an investment bank.
The net buying in June, which was the first net purchase since September last year when buyings outdid sales by Sh29 million, was the highest in a single month since May last year (Sh1.49 billion), according to data from the CMA.
Before the net purchases in June, foreigners had remained net sellers of listed stocks for eight straight months to the end of May on prolonged uncertainties regarding the US trade policy.
During the period, net sales by foreigners hit Sh6.95 billion, with the largest outflow coming in December and February at Sh1.28 billion each.
Analysts at the time attributed the exits to the prolonged uncertainty regarding the global growth picture as the US continued to explore tariffs to correct its trade imbalances with other countries.
Safaricom, Equity, East African Breweries, KCB Group, Co-operative Bank of Kenya, and Standard Chartered Bank of Kenya, which are part of the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) frontier markets index, have attracted foreign investors' interest in the past two months.
Offshore investor interest has also been registered on stocks such as HF Group, BAT Kenya, Kenya Electricity Generating Company, Kenya Re, and DTB Group, which are on the MSCI Frontier Markets Small Cap Index.
MSCI is an international firm that provides investment data and analytics services to global investors. Their indices serve as a key performance indicator for investors tracking emerging markets such as Kenya.
