The Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) traded shares worth over P700 million between January and July 2022, following an increase in volume of shares traded in the local bourse, according to company’s market performance report released this week.

According to the report trading activity between January and July 2022 was high, leading to a turnover amounting to P777.3 million.

 
The report shows that trading activity during the review period in 2022 increased by 109.7% from the corresponding period in 2021 and during this period in 2022 the BSE recorded two large trades that contributed to the highest turnover amounting P186.8 million and P142.9 million in a single day. The highest trades between January and July 2022, according to BSE occurred on 23rd March 2022 and 17th June 2022. “As at the end of July 2022, a total equity turnover of P777.3 million was recorded from traded volumes of 352.4 million shares between January and July 2022. Turnover during the corresponding period in 2021 amounted to P370.7 million and a total volume of 267.0 million shares traded were recorded,” said BSE.

BSE stated that the top three traded companies during the period under review were Letshego which traded shares worth P428.7 Million, FNBB (P59.3 Million) and Sefalana (P57.9 Million). The total turnover from these 3 companies accounted for 70.2% of total equity turnover, with the leading counter Letshego accounting for 55.2% of total equity turnover, according to BSE.  “Letshego’s considerable contribution to total equity turnover results from two significantly high trades of P183.0 Million on 23rd March 2022 and P142.7 Million on 17th June 2022 accounting for the two highest daily trades per counter in 2022 thus far. In comparison to the same period in 2021, the top 3 traded companies accounted for 45.7% of total equity turnover with the leading counter Letshego accounting for 18.% (P67.2 Million) of total equity turnover.”

BSE stated that of the 31 listed companies, 8 depreciated in share price, 15 appreciated in share price while 8 experienced no share price change and added that the top gainer over the 1 January to 31 July period was Botswana Diamonds (BOD) with an appreciation of 25.0%, followed by Standard Chartered Bank and Letlole with gains of 21.4% and 17.6% respectively. “BBS experienced the biggest decline in share price of 39.2% followed by Lucara and PrimeTime (PrimeTime Property Holdings) with declines of 13.1% and 11.9% respectively.”

According to BSE Local companies recorded the highest equity turnover, as they contributed 61.0% (P473.9 million) to total equity turnover, followed by foreign companies which contributed 32.1% or P249.7 million, local individuals (3.9% or P30.5 million) and foreign individuals contributed 3.0% or P23.1 million.

The BSE provides a platform for government, parastatal and private companies to raise capital by trading equities, (shares) bonds, commercial paper, and asset backed securities, special acquisition companies, exchange traded funds, investment funds and depository receipts. Companies trading in the stock market, are from different sectors of the economy, including agriculture, banking, financial services, wholesaling & retailing, tourism, energy, mining & materials, property & trust, security and telecommunications.

Observers believe that BSE equity market is likely to rebound in the coming years, after recording a steady decline since 2015. “Equity market capitalization on BSE has been in steady decline since 2015, due in large part to consistent net de-listings and a lack of new listings of equity since 2018. However, there are indications that its performance is likely to rebound in the coming years, with expectations of an aggressive promotion of the listing value proposition by the BSE,” said Africa Bright (AB) Investment Bank Chairperson Naoufal Bensalah. In 2021 the BSE partnered with Bloomberg to enhance its visibility and launched its mobile application, which offers most of its web-based trading options.

According to BSE CEO Thapelo Tsheole, the company’s priorities going forward include increasing company listings. “Costs associated with listing, mostly paid to intermediaries, need to be lowered to encourage more initial public offerings,” said Tsheole.

The BSE offers small and medium-sized enterprises less onerous listing and capital-raising requirements, as well as training and mentor-ship programs to support their participation in the equity market.

According to BSE recent update the local bourse has equity market capitalization of $33bn with 31 equity listings, 46 fixed-income offerings and 6 exchange-traded funds. There are diverse investment base, with 23.3% of assets held by foreign companies, 3.4% by foreign individuals, 61.5% by local companies and 11.8% by local individuals.

The BSE provides a platform for government, parastatal and private companies to raise capital by trading equities, (shares) bonds, commercial paper, and asset backed securities, special acquisition companies, exchange traded funds, investment funds and depository receipts. Companies trading in the stock market, are from different sectors of the economy, including agriculture, banking, financial services, wholesaling & retailing, tourism, energy, mining & materials, property & trust, security and telecommunications.