Nairobi Securities Exchange — NSE 25 Sinks 20.29% as Safaricom FY2026 Results Steady the Tape
The NSE 25 fell 20.29% on Thursday, but Safaricom helped cushion the selloff, rising 1.1% on KES 433.8 million traded after its FY2026 results. The session also featured a heavy earnings slate including TotalEnergies Kenya and Nation Media Group.
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A striking divergence defined trading on the Nairobi Securities Exchange on Thursday, 23 July 2026: the NSE 25 plunged 20.29% to 3,030.0 points, yet Safaricom Plc, the day’s busiest stock by value traded, rose 1.1% to KES 35.50 after releasing its audited results for the year ended 31 March 2026. With KES 433.8 million worth of Safaricom shares changing hands, the market clearly separated broad index pressure from a more constructive read-through on the telecom group’s earnings.
That divergence matters because Safaricom remains one of the most important bellwethers in the Kenya stock market, both through its telecom franchise and the M-Pesa ecosystem. According to official NSE announcements released on 23 July 2026, the session also carried a heavy batch of annual results, including TotalEnergies Marketing Kenya, Nation Media Group and Car & General Kenya, which sharpened stock-picking in what otherwise looked like a deeply negative market day.
Market context: a red session, but not a uniform selloff
The headline move in NSE Kenya today was undeniably weak, but the underlying tape was more mixed than the index suggested. Out of 57 listed counters tracked, 24 declined, 21 advanced and 12 were unchanged, pointing to a market that was selective rather than indiscriminately sold. Among the top gainers, Standard Group rose 10.1% to KES 6.34, Unga Group added 9.1% to KES 32.25, and Olympia Capital climbed 5.7% to KES 7.00. On the downside, Britam fell 9.7% to KES 16.35, Kenya Airways dropped 7.7% to KES 5.50, and TPS Eastern Africa Serena lost 7.2% to KES 14.75.
Trading activity clustered around large caps and earnings names. After Safaricom, the biggest traded values came from Equity Group Holdings at KES 178.4 million, Diamond Trust Bank at KES 76.8 million, KCB Group at KES 60.0 million, and KenGen at KES 40.9 million. Even though Equity and KCB were not the lead stories of the day, their turnover remains important for reading bank positioning, especially after the NSE announced on 23 July the launch of a new banking sector index.
Macro conditions were not especially supportive. The Kenyan shilling weakened 0.83% to 129.37 per dollar, raising the local-currency cost of imports and pressuring companies exposed to dollar-priced fuel, equipment or debt service. At the same time, Brent crude fell 7.5% on the day to $87.06 a barrel, according to the supplied market data, as global markets reacted to U.S.-Iran peace talks and competing narratives around a possible year-end oil surplus versus renewed supply shock. For Kenya, a net fuel importer, lower crude is generally supportive for inflation and downstream fuel distributors, but the immediate benefit was partly offset by the weaker shilling.
The central earnings story was Safaricom’s FY2026 audited release, published officially on 23 July 2026. The stock responded with a 1.1% gain, even as the benchmark index fell more than 20%, suggesting investors judged the results strong enough to justify short-term outperformance. The fact that Safaricom generated KES 433.8 million in traded value, far above Equity’s KES 178.4 million, shows that the reaction had real depth rather than being a thin move.
While the full income statement detail was not included in the data provided, the editorial brief is clear: revenue growth offset sector pressure. That is the key analytical point. Safaricom is operating in an environment where a 0.83% move in USD/KES can lift network, technology and financing costs, while competition in data and digital financial services requires continued capital spending. If the market still marked the stock higher, it likely means investors saw enough resilience in top-line drivers — especially M-Pesa-linked activity and connectivity demand — to absorb those headwinds.
For retail readers checking the safaricom share price today, the most useful signal is not just the 1.1% rise, but the relative performance. In a session where Kenya Airways lost 7.7% and Britam shed 9.7%, Safaricom acted as a stabiliser. That fits its structural role on the Nairobi market: a heavyweight name whose earnings often shape broader sentiment. For recent context on how sharply the wider market has been swinging, see Bourse de Nairobi — Kurv Holdings s’envole de 19,7% malgré un NSE 25 en chute de 20,29%.
Safaricom also matters beyond one reporting day because of its unique position in East Africa’s digital economy. On the NSE, it is not simply another telecom stock; it is a proxy for mobile money penetration, consumer spending velocity and the monetisation of Kenya’s “Silicon Savannah” infrastructure. That is why earnings resilience can matter even when the broader Nairobi stock exchange today looks weak on the surface.
Supporting earnings stories: fuel marketing, media and industrial names
The 23 July session was not only about Safaricom. TotalEnergies Marketing Kenya released its audited 2025 results, and the stock edged up 1.1% to KES 44.00. That modest gain is consistent with the day’s 7.5% drop in Brent: for a downstream fuel marketer, softer crude can support demand and ease some working-capital pressure, although inventory effects and regulated pricing mechanisms can distort the short-term earnings read-through.
Nation Media Group also published audited 2025 results, with the stock rising 1.2% to KES 12.95. That suggests a reasonably positive market reception in a sector where advertising revenue remains tied to domestic business confidence, consumer demand and borrowing costs. With the shilling at 129.37 to the dollar, media groups that rely on imported technology, printing inputs or licensed content still face currency pressure that can squeeze margins.
In industrials and smaller caps, Car & General Kenya was among the companies reporting, alongside Express Kenya, Home Afrika, Limuru Tea and Shri Krishana Overseas. Express Kenya gained 2.3% to KES 7.16, while Shri Krishana fell 3.0% to KES 9.60 and Home Afrika dropped 2.7% to KES 1.07. That spread is important: the market is not rewarding earnings releases automatically. It is discriminating between balance-sheet quality, cash generation, margin durability and macro exposure. Williamson Tea’s 1.7% decline to KES 170.0 also underlined how agricultural counters remain sensitive to global commodity trends, even though tea itself was not quoted in the supplied macro basket.
What this session really says about the Kenya market
The most revealing takeaway from Thursday is that a 20.29% drop in the NSE 25 did not prevent several earnings-linked names from holding firm or advancing. That points to a Kenyan market increasingly split between companies that can defend margins in a weaker-currency environment and those more exposed to discretionary demand, leverage or fragile operating models. The NSE’s decision, announced on 23 July, to launch a banking sector index fits that same trend: investors want more precise tools to track where resilience is actually sitting.
