Nairobi Securities Exchange — OCH Jumps 8.4%, Kenya Airways 7.8% as CIC Drives a Split Week
Nairobi ended the week with no clear market direction: the NSE 25 rose 0.14% while the NSE 20 slipped 0.06%, with 24 gainers and 24 losers. Olympia Capital and Kenya Airways led advances as CIC Insurance released FY2025 results and the exchange unveiled several strategic initiatives.
|7 min read
Kenyan equities closed the week ending Friday, April 24, 2026 with a market that looked balanced on the surface but was far more selective underneath. The NSE 25 edged up 0.14% to 5,735.29, while the NSE 20 slipped 0.06% to 3,589.13, and market breadth landed in a perfect split at 24 gainers, 24 losers and 9 unchanged. Yet that flat index picture concealed two clear drivers: sharp moves in a handful of names led by Olympia Capital Holdings (+8.4% to 7.7 KES) and Kenya Airways (+7.8% to 6.6 KES), and a heavy flow of corporate and exchange-level announcements that gave investors fresh signals to price.
The macro backdrop matters here. Brent crude ended at $98.89 a barrel, down 5.9% on the day but still up 3.6% on the week, while the US dollar strengthened 0.89% against the Kenyan shilling to 129.25 KES. For Kenya, a net oil importer, that combination is not neutral. Elevated oil prices feed transport and power costs, while a weaker shilling raises the local-currency burden of fuel, imported inputs and dollar liabilities. That helps explain why the Kenya stock market could not build a broad rally even as a few counters posted eye-catching gains.
To understand NSE Kenya today, investors need to look beyond the headline indices and into turnover concentration. Safaricom Plc, still the exchange’s anchor stock by weight and liquidity, rose 0.7% on traded value of 625,887,247.95 KES. That was far ahead of Equity Group Holdings, which fell 0.7% on 75,554,850 KES, while Absa Bank Kenya gained 2.3% to 31.0 KES on 36,621,478 KES and KCB Group slipped 0.4% on 36,196,387.5 KES. Co-operative Bank was unchanged with 14,765,856 KES traded.
That turnover pattern says at least 2 things. First, investors are still clustering around liquid large caps in a market where breadth is neutral and conviction is selective. Second, Safaricom’s modest 0.7% gain likely helped keep the NSE 25 in positive territory even as several financials softened. On Safaricom itself, the market continues to price the same structural themes that define the Nairobi bourse: the resilience of M-Pesa, which supports high-margin revenue, and the long-term optionality of the Ethiopia expansion, which remains strategically important even if it still absorbs capital. Even without a fresh company-specific release this week, the safaricom share price today remains a proxy for domestic risk appetite.
Olympia Capital and Kenya Airways lead, but this was not a broad risk-on week
The week’s top performer was Olympia Capital Holdings, up 8.4% to 7.7 KES. In a market where the main indices moved by less than 0.2%, that kind of jump usually reflects tactical repositioning in smaller names rather than a full-market re-rating. The move is notable precisely because it happened against a backdrop of split breadth and limited index momentum.
Kenya Airways followed with a 7.8% rise to 6.6 KES, extending interest in turnaround and traffic-recovery stories. The stock remains highly sensitive to global macro variables moving in opposite directions. On one side, Brent’s 5.9% daily drop offers some relief on jet fuel costs. On the other, oil still near $99 and a USD/KES at 129.25 keep pressure on an airline with significant dollar-linked expenses. In other words, the rally does not mean the cost story has disappeared; it suggests the market is taking a somewhat more constructive view of the balance between traffic recovery and input costs.
The rest of the gainers’ board was more measured. Total Kenya rose 3.2% to 42.9 KES, Absa Bank Kenya added 2.3%, Umeme gained 2.3%, Uchumi rose 1.6%, Kenya Power added 1.5%, Diamond Trust Bank Kenya climbed 1.3%, CIC Insurance gained 1.1%, Kenya Re rose 0.9%, and KenGen added 0.9%. That spread shows a market rewarding stock-specific stories rather than one dominant sector theme. On the downside, Stanbic Holdings (-1.0%), HF Group (-1.1%), Sanlam Kenya (-1.6%), Kakuzi (-1.8%), BOC Kenya (-2.3%), Flame Tree (-3.5%), TPS Eastern Africa Serena (-6.9%) and Eaagads (-7.0%) underlined how cautious positioning still is.
The Eaagads drop of 7.0% to 33.75 KES is especially relevant in the commodity context. Coffee fell 4.4% on the week to 302.35, which can weigh directly on sentiment toward agriculture-linked counters. By contrast, cocoa rose 2.8%, cotton gained 2.7%, and wheat added 0.2%, but those moves had a more indirect read-through for Nairobi-listed names.
CIC Insurance delivered the week’s main fundamental trigger
The clearest fundamental event came from CIC Insurance Group, which released audited results for the financial year ended December 31, 2025, according to official NSE announcements. The stock closed Friday up 1.1% at 4.55 KES, suggesting the market’s initial reaction was at least constructive. The detailed earnings line items were not included in the data provided here, so it would be inappropriate to infer profitability, underwriting margins or capital ratios beyond what has been officially flagged.
What can be said with confidence is that CIC’s release arrived at a time when the insurance segment is trying to regain market relevance. The simultaneous 1.6% decline in Sanlam Kenya and the modest 0.9% gain in Kenya Re show that investors did not treat the sector as a single trade. For retail readers tracking NSE share prices, that matters: in insurance, balance-sheet quality, investment income mix and underwriting discipline are often more important than broad sector labels.
The week also brought audited results from Jubilee Holdings, alongside disclosures from Laptrust Imara I-REIT and ILAM Fahari I-REIT, according to official exchange notices. The significance lies less in immediate price action than in the steady expansion of financial disclosure. In a market where rates, FX and funding costs remain central valuation inputs, each audited release helps investors recalibrate expectations around rental income, solvency, distributable earnings and portfolio quality.
The exchange itself was unusually active
Beyond listed-company moves, the Nairobi Securities Exchange had a busy week at the institutional level. The bourse announced the admission of Fintrust Securities Limited as an Authorized Securities Dealer in the fixed-income market, unveiled a new banking sector index, flagged steps to widen retail investor access, and disclosed that investors will soon be able to trade global markets through the listing of a Satrix MSCI World Feeder ETF on the NSE. It also published multiple AGM notices, board-related announcements and director appointments.
These developments matter for at least 3 reasons. First, they deepen market infrastructure at a time when Kenyan investors are looking for more diversification, especially with the dollar up 0.89% against the shilling. Second, the banking index formalises a segment that already dominates daily liquidity through names such as Absa, KCB, Co-op, Equity and DTB. Third, a locally listed global feeder ETF creates a practical bridge between domestic savings in KES and international assets without requiring direct offshore execution.
Banks, telecoms and defensives: what the tape is saying
Within financials, Absa Bank Kenya (+2.3%) was the strongest among the heavily traded lenders, ahead of Co-operative Bank (flat), KCB (-0.4%), Equity (-0.7%) and Stanbic (-1.0%). That dispersion suggests the market is not reading banks solely through the rates lens. Investors are also differentiating on franchise quality, cost of risk, regional exposure and margin resilience in an environment where the local currency has weakened.
For Equity Bank share price and KCB share price, the regional story remains central. Both groups carry expansion narratives across Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and the DRC, which can support growth but also add layers of FX and execution risk. In a week when the dollar strengthened not only against the KES, but also against the ZAR (+0.61%), NGN (+0.41%) and especially the EGP (+1.13%), there are clear reasons for investors to stay selective on pan-African lenders.
Outlook: earnings digestion, AGMs and the oil-FX mix
For the week ahead, the Nairobi market has 4 clear signposts: digestion of the FY2025 results already released, the AGM calendar disclosed on April 24, implementation of the NSE’s governance and board changes, and the path of the Brent/USD-KES combination. If oil stays close to $99 a barrel and the shilling remains around 129.25 per dollar, companies exposed to imported energy, transport costs and foreign-currency inputs will remain sensitive. If either variable eases materially, cost pressure would soften.
