The local market was quiet this week, with the NSX Local index down 0.02% at 616, and the NSX Overall Index down 2.27% at 1257. As at 24 September, Namibia Breweries was the largest local company on the exchange, with market capitalization of N$ 10 billion, followed by Trustco Group with N$ 9.7 billion, FirstRand Namibia with N$ 8.9 billion, and Capricorn Investment Group with N$ 8.3 billion. In terms of volume Trustco Group lead the market with N$ 597 thousand worth of shares traded, with Namibia Breweries in second place with N$ 142 thousand worth of shares traded. The local currency lost 1.36% against the US Dollar, to close at N$ 14.94 per USD, and lost 1.19% against the British Pound, to close at N$ 18.65 per GBP. It closed at N$ 16.45 against the Euro, a loss of 0.82%.
The Namibia Statistics Agency released the second quarter GDP figures for Namibia last week, and revealed that economy recorded a contraction of 2.6 percent. The poor performance were due to the agriculture and forestry (-28.1%), mining and quarrying (-20.2%), construction (-5.5%), wholesale and retail trade (-2.0%) and hotels and restaurants sectors (-2.8%). However, other sectors, like manufacturing and electricity & water registered growths of 18.8% and 2.7%. Export of goods stood at N$ 13,288 million during the quarter, with goods imported standing at N$ 19,687 million.
