Malawi Stock Market Commentary

In Malawi, the local bourse experienced the worst week so far this year in terms of both volume and turnover. Active counters were; Illovo, NBS, TNM generating MWK 2.1m in market turnover on the local board, while OML traded MWK 21.9m on the foreign board. Despite the low turnover, demand is still growing on Illovo, Old mutual and Standard Bank. The market remained flat.

Finance and Development Planning Ministry has confirmed that an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission will arrive in the country in March. The IMF team’s main focus would be on Article IV, Malawi hopes to combine the mission with the derailed Extended Credit Facility.

The National Statistical Office (NSO) reported the country’s y/y headline inflation for January 2012 stands at 10.3%, up from 9.8% registered in December last year. In a statement, NSO says urban and rural rates are 13.8% and 8.4%, respectively. It further says food inflation has gone up by 6.1% as compared to 5.2% in December due to price increases in cereals and food commodities.

The Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) has lifted the suspension on treasury bills (TBs) auction indicating that the next auction will be on Tuesday 21 February 2012. TB maturities during the week ended 17 February 2012 amounted to MWK 1.1bn whereas maturities for the week end of 24 February 2012 stand at MWK 2.3bn according to the RBM. The RBM has also announced that the third auction of the MWK 30bn bond will take place on Wednesday. The bond issued in December 2011 is aimed at restructuring government’s domestic debt and developing a