Bralirwa shares slipped by Rwf8 in yesterday’s trading on the Rwandan Stock Exchange (RSE) compared to last week as some investors pulled out of the secondary market to invest in the ongoing Initial Public Offer (IPO) of Bank of Kigali (BK).

According to a market report from the Capital Market Advisory Council (CMAC), Bralirwa shares closed at Rwf232 in yesterday’s trading, a decrease of Rwf8 from last week’s closing, which reflected a high demand for the BK IPO stock.

CMAC’s Operations Manager, Celestin Rwabukumba told Business Times in a phone interview, the developments are normal market trends similar to every other market.

"This should not cause any alarm, these are fundamental market trends. The market is driven by the force of demand and supply,” Rwabukumba noted.

According to the information from CMAC, the turnover for the day (Monday, 25) was Rwf2.3 million recorded from 10,000 Bralirwa shares transacted in three deals at Rwf32.

Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and Nation Media Group (NMG) counters did not record any activity yesterday and their shares last transacted at Rwf175 and Rwf 1,200 respectively.

At the end of formal trading hours, there were outstanding offers of 18,100 and 500 Bralirwa shares at Rwf240 and Rwf232, respectively.

Analysts say the low trading is caused by people buying more of Bank of Kigali’s (BK) shares giving little attention to other shares.

However, they believe shares will bounce back to normal after BK’s offering period which will close on July 29, 2011.

BK becomes the country’s second local company to float its shares to the public.

Ends