BSEL revenue declines by almost 60 percent
With its turnover declining by almost 60 percent, the opening eight months of 2020 have gone down as one of the worst trading periods in the Botswana Stock Exchange Limited’s (BSEL) 31-year history.
Confirming the drop, the BSEL Market Performance Report released this week shows that from January to August, the stock market recorded a total equity turnover of P483.3 million. This was raised from traded volumes of 274.3 million shares.
Putting these figures into context, in the corresponding eight months of 2019, BSEL registered P1.2 billion in equity turnover with 378.2 million shares traded.
The turnover for the current period amounts to a 59 percent decline over the same interval last year.
Market analysts have previously told Voice Money that the BSEL, just like many other stock markets the world over, has been affected by the outbreak of Covid-19.
Breaking the numbers down further, March – the month before the nation went into lockdown – experienced the highest turnover at P117.7 million over 50.9 million shares traded. June came in second with a turnover of P89.9 million from 33.9 million traded shares.
The month of August had the most number of traded shares at 99.4 million, generating the third-highest monthly turnover of P77.9 million.
By companies, from January to the end of August, Letshego was the most traded enterprise, with the value of shares traded by the micro-financing company at P122.7 million followed by Sechaba Holdings at 69.1 million.
The third most traded company was First National Bank Botswana (FNBB) at 59.2 million. Between them, the top three generated turnover amounting to P251 million, or 52 percent of total equity turnover for the eight months.
Regarding share price performances, 21 out of the 32 listed companies suffered share price declines while three experienced an increase in the share price.
The top three companies were Sefalana, Letlole, and Cresta, which gained 3.7 percent, 1.8 percent, and 0.7 percent respectively.
On the other hand, the bottom three companies that endured a decline were Lucara, Minergy, and FNBB, which dropped by 49.7 percent, 22.7 percent, and 17.5 percent respectively.
In terms of investor contribution to the turnover, local companies contributed 57.3 percent or P277.1 million in monetary terms while local individuals contributed 6.6 percent (P32 million in monetary value).
Foreign companies contributed P150.1 million in monetary terms or 31.1 percent to the total equity turnover, while foreign individuals and foreign brokers contributed 4.8 percent or 23.3 million and 0.2 percent or P0.8 million respectively.