The local market remained quiet this week, with the NSX Local index down 0.04% at 558, and the NSX Overall Index up 1.39% at 971. As at 14 April, FirstRand Namibia was the largest local company on the exchange, with market capitalization of N$ 8.95 billion, followed by Namibia Breweries with N$ 8.3 billion, Capricorn Investment Group with N$ 7.8 billion, and Trustco Group Holdings with N$ 5 billion. In terms of volume Trustco Group lead the market with N$ 166 thousand worth of shares traded, with Standard Bank Namibia in second place with N$ 9 thousand worth of shares traded. The local currency gained 0.11% against the US Dollar, to close at N$ 18.31 per USD, and lost 2.26% against the British Pound, to close at N$ 23.11 per GBP. It closed at N$ 20.11 against the Euro, a loss of 0.71%.
The Namibia Statistics Agency released the inflation figures for the month of March 2020, and revealed that annual inflation is now 2.4% compared to 4.4% the same time last year, having reduced from the 2.5% recorded for February 2020. Decreases in price were due to Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (-0.3% from 2.1%) which accounts for 28.4 percent of the overall NCPI basket, as well as Food and non-alcoholic beverages (2.9% from 5.8%) which accounts for 16.5 percent of the overall NCPI basket. Zone 1 (Otjozondjupa, Kunene, Oshana, Omusati, Oshikoto, Ohangwena, Kavango East, Kavango West and Zambezi) saw inflation of 2.6% compared to 2.8% last month, with Zone 2 (Khomas) seeing inflation of 2.0% compared to 2.1% last month. Zone 3 (Omaheke, Hardap, Karas and Erongo) had inflation of 2.5%, compared to 2.5% last month.
