Bank of Kigali (BK) shares gained some ground during yesterday’s trading following a sharp decline in last week’s trading on the Rwanda Stock Exchange (RSE).

In yesterday’s trading that seems to have offered some relief to investors who had endured the frustration of the declining stock, BK shares rose by Rwf3 to close at Rwf140.

On Friday BK shares closed at Rwf137 the lowest price in a fortnight since the bank was listed on RSE.

Bralirwa shares gained Rwf5 before closing at Rwf255.

"KCB and NMG last transacted at Rwf175 and Rwf1,200 respectively. The turnover was Rwf384, 671,000 recorded from 2,370,500 BK shares traded between Rwf140 and Rwf130 and 258,400 Bralirwa shares traded between 255 and Rwf249 all transacted in 17 deals,” the market report from RSE stated.

At the end of business, according to the report, there were outstanding offers of 1,948,400 BK shares between Rwf137 and Rwf150 and no bids.

The Bralirwa counter had outstanding bids of 812,200 shares between Rwf245 and Rwf250 and an outstanding offer of 25,100 at Rwf260, it added.

Last week, BK reported a 76 per cent increase in the net profit for the first six months of the year from the Rwf2.2b realised in 2010 to Rwf3.8b this year.

According to the Marketing Manager of BK, Januario Mucyo, the lender attained the growth afer a growing bank’s balance sheet.

"We attained this through the growth in customer deposits, growth in our total assets which led to the increase in our market share,” Mucyo explained, adding that the lender targets Rwf8b in net profits this year up from last year’s Rwf6b.

"We will reach the target by managing the costs, improving customer services and launching new products,” he stated.  

Mucyo observed that BK had put up an improved credit analysis team and upgraded customer recovery measures to curb Non Performing Loan (NPL) percentage which presently stands at less than seven per cent.

Ends