Even as India continues to be one of the preferred markets for Mark Mobius, the Kenyan market seems to have caught veteran investor’s eye this time. Thanks to a sharp correction in Kenyan stocks over the last two years.

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) All Share Index is down 21.3 percent so far this year, after witnessing a similar magnitude of fall last year. “Our biggest holdings are in Taiwan, Korea and India. We are investing in Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, Turkey and Vietnam,” said Mark Mobius, founder of Mobius Capital Partners on Thursday, at Greenwich Economic Forum in Hong Kong.

India, the fifth largest equity market in the world accounts for about 3.23 percent of the world equity market, which stands at $ 106.4 trillion as of Thursday. Other favoured destinations of Mobius – Taiwan and Korea contribute another 1.8 percent each to the world equity market. In an interaction with CNBC-TV18 in February this year, Mobius argued that emerging markets (EMs) like India are doing very well, they are also getting cheap energy from Russia. The huge risk is China trying to take over Taiwan, he stated.

With a market capitalisation of barely $ 10.72 billion, Kenya is ranked at the bottom of the ladder, occupying 66th rank among the world equity markets. However, unlike India, the African country has just 61 companies listed on their bourse. Additionally, the telecommunication services provider, Safaricom PLC contributes the most to the country’s market cap with a market valuation of $ 4.24 billion, data compiled from Bloomberg revealed.

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The real GDP growth of Kenya has slowed to 5.5 percent in 2022 from 7.5 percent in 2021 as global fallout on commodity prices due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine hit the country hard. Further, the drought buffeted the vital agriculture sector. However, the country has managed to narrow its fiscal deficit to 6.3 percent of GDP from 8.2 percent in 2021 due to improved revenue collection and adherence to the International Monetary Fund– supported fiscal consolation path.

(Edited by : Keshav Singh Chundawat)

First Published:Jun 15, 2023 10:06 PM IST