Thursday, March 22, 2007

The Bear reigns

I like many of us, have been left stunned by the recent unrelenting slide at the NSE. We all expected a correction of sorts to occur sooner or later but not at the scale being witnessed. A quick analysis of stocks performance at the bourse shows that all of the 45 listed companies which traded within the last month with the exception of Limuru tea and Eaagads, though with a paltry 900 shares traded between them, the rest have shaven at least 18% of their value. Good results being announced by most of them has not been enough to even pause the slide leave alone cause a surge in demand. This means that all investors within the NSE have had to reckon with a massive decrease in portfolio value.

The silver linning in this very grim situation is that blue chip companies are becoming affordable by the day. PE ratios of most of them are starting to look very attractive. So other than bang our heads against the wall in frustration, we must take advantage of this bear by positioning ourselves ready for the bull which will sooner or late charge into the scene.