Nairobi Securities Exchange — CIC 2025 Results Land in a Split Market as Safaricom, KCB Drag
CIC Insurance Group released its audited 2025 results on April 13, 2026, into a divided Nairobi session: the NSE 25 rose 0.02% while 28 stocks fell. Brent at $100.87 and USD/KES at 129.2 added a tougher macro backdrop for Kenyan financials.
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The clearest signal from trading on Monday, April 13, 2026 in Nairobi did not come from the headline indices but from earnings. CIC Insurance Group released its audited 2025 results into a market that struggled to turn a handful of sharp gains into a broader advance. The NSE 25 added just 0.02% to 5,714.45, while declines in Safaricom of 2.0% and KCB Group of 1.8% underlined how heavily Kenyan equities still depend on a few large names.
Market context: flat indices masked a weaker underlying tape
The picture for NSE Kenya today was one of a split market rather than a convincing recovery. On the gainers’ board, TPS Eastern Africa Serena rose 6.2% to , BK Group added to , and Longhorn Publishers climbed to . But those moves were offset by broader weakness, with against , a negative breadth reading that matters more than the near-flat close in the benchmark.
Turnover patterns reinforced that caution. I&M Holdings led value traded at KES 218.7 million, yet the stock fell 1.4%. Equity Group Holdings followed with KES 100.8 million and a 1.3% decline, while Safaricom traded KES 85.1 million and lost 2.0%. KCB posted KES 70.2 million in turnover and ended at KES 69.75. In other words, money was active in the market’s biggest counters, but not in a way that signalled broad risk appetite.
Global macro helps explain that hesitation. Brent crude jumped to $100.87 a barrel, up 6.0% on the day and 6.5% on the week, as headlines around US-Iran tensions and risks to the Strait of Hormuz rattled global markets. For Kenya, a net energy importer, oil above $100 raises the import bill, feeds transport and logistics costs, and can revive inflation pressure. With USD/KES at 129.2, up 0.08%, the pass-through from higher dollar-priced fuel into local corporate costs becomes harder to ignore.
CIC Insurance earnings 2026: why the release matters for the whole sector
The key earnings event of the session was the release of CIC Insurance Group’s audited 2025 results, alongside audited numbers from Britam Holdings, Kenya Re Insurance Corporation and Umeme. Even without the full line-by-line financial statement in the market summary provided here, the timing alone is significant. It puts insurance at the centre of trading on April 13, 2026, at a moment when investors are trying to judge how Kenyan financials are coping with a more demanding macro backdrop.
For an insurer such as CIC, three variables matter especially in 2026. First, domestic yield conditions shape investment income, which remains a core earnings driver across the sector. Second, currency stability matters for foreign-currency assets, reinsurance costs and balance-sheet translation effects; that is where USD/KES at 129.2 becomes relevant. Third, Brent at $100.87 can feed into claims inflation, especially in motor lines, through higher transport costs, imported spare parts and broader pressure on household budgets.
That is why CIC’s release should be read as a sector barometer, not a stand-alone corporate event. Banks may still be the market’s first read-through on the real economy, but insurers offer a different lens: underwriting discipline, pricing power, portfolio returns and the ability to defend margins when costs rise. Based on the official announcements published on the day, the clustering of CIC, Britam and Kenya Re results gives investors an early test of NSE insurance sector performance for the 2025 financial year.
Banks and telecoms still dictated the market mood
The session also showed that insurance earnings landed in a market still dominated by positioning in banks and telecoms. Safaricom, which remains one of the heaviest weights on the exchange, fell 2.0% to KES 29.0. In any reading of the Nairobi stock exchange today, that move matters more than a long tail of smaller gainers. The stock continues to trade as a two-part story: the resilience of M-Pesa in Kenya and the slower-burn expansion in Ethiopia. When Safaricom weakens, the broader index usually struggles to build momentum.
Banking names sent a similar message. KCB lost 1.8%, Equity fell 1.3%, and I&M dropped 1.4%, all on sizeable turnover. That combination points less to panic selling than to cautious repositioning as the market absorbs a fresh wave of financial-sector disclosures. The exchange’s launch of a Banking Sector Index, also announced on April 13, is telling in that respect. Nairobi is trying to sharpen sector-level performance tracking at a time when Kenyan banks are driven not only by local rates but also by regional currencies, funding costs and cross-border growth in Uganda, Tanzania, the DRC and Rwanda.
For retail readers tracking NSE share prices, the takeaway is straightforward: an index that finishes flat while breadth is negative and heavyweight stocks are down is usually less healthy than the headline suggests. The fact that the NSE 20 rose 0.21%, more than the NSE 25 at 0.02%, suggests some resilience in other parts of the market, but without confirmation from the largest counters.
Supporting stories: Britam, Kenya Re, global ETF access and industrial weakness
Beyond CIC, the day was crowded with earnings and market-structure developments. Britam Holdings released audited 2025 results, as did Kenya Re Insurance Corporation and Umeme Limited. That concentration of disclosures made the session fundamentally driven rather than purely technical. Investors in the Kenya stock market were not just reacting to flows; they were beginning to reprice parts of the financial sector using fresh audited numbers.
The NSE also announced that investors on the local exchange will soon be able to access global markets through the listing of a Satrix MSCI World Feeder ETF, according to the official press release. That matters for retail participation and portfolio diversification, especially on a day when the exchange also said it was taking steps to expand investment access for retail investors. In a market facing higher oil prices and a slightly weaker shilling, easier access to offshore exposure is a notable strategic shift.
On the downside, several industrial and consumer-linked names came under pressure. Crown Paints slumped 15.1% to KES 54.75, East African Portland Cement fell 7.2% to KES 77.0, HF Group dropped 7.4% to KES 9.4, and BOC Kenya lost 6.3% to KES 119.0. Total Kenya declined 3.1% to KES 42.2, a move worth noting in the current oil environment. Higher crude prices do not automatically lift downstream fuel distributors, because regulated margins, working-capital needs and financing costs can all tighten when oil spikes.
