Today is a day to give thanks for and recognize some notable happenings to empower investors.
Businss Daily: I was skeptical about the newspaper at the start but it has come through and is a great read, with all the major stories posted online (the site also has RSS feeds). I don’t know if/when it will break even and I also fear that it become ”online subscriber only once it reaches a critical number of readers.
Hisanet: Is one of the many upcoming platforms that aspires to offer online trading at the Nairobi Stock Exchanges (and so investors wont have to queue for IPO shares). It’s still not possible to trade in real time (i.e. you can’ place orders till nest day, unless you’re a major player) but this is something that has been lacking at most stockbrokers and will be a welcome avenue for Kenyans living abroad.
NSE site: The new web site of the Nairobi Stock Exchange has been a great improvement with daily price lists and some corporate news, conference reports and presentations and is also easier t navigate. The only drawback has been its massive PDF scans instead of simple text files. E.g. a one page statement on the collapse of Francis Thuo was 1.13 MB in size.
CMA wakes up: The collapse of Francis Thuo and alleged misdeeds at other stockbrokers has turned the heat up at the Capital Markets Authority who have now turned the heat on to other entities such as stockbrokers, insiders, and directors of companies.
In proposed new rules posted at the CMA site (which is also due for a spruce up) the CMA;
- Cracks down on misbehavior such as insider trading by raising possible penalties to 15 million shillings ($214,286) for companies, 10 million for employees and 5 million for directors. They will also have to reimburse their gains and have their names published. it’s about time
- Locks in management of companies coming up for IPO’s. While owners/managers at Equity, Access Kenya and Scangroup voluntarily agreed to stay on, the CMA has now formally endorsed that they can't sell their shares for two years following listing
- The new rules also clear the way for other country shares to be cross listed on the NSE
