The local market picked up this week, with the NSX Local index down 10.01% at 522, and the NSX Overall Index down 4.43% at 1048. As at 16 June, FirstRand Namibia was the largest local company on the exchange, with market capitalization of N$ 8.7 billion, followed by Namibia Breweries with N$ 7.24 billion, Capricorn Group with N$ 7.23 billion, and Standard Bank Namibia with N$ 4.4 billion. Paratus Namibia Holdings lead the market this week with growth of 6.9% to close at N$11 per share. In terms of volume Namibia Breweries lead the market with N$ 762 thousand worth of shares traded, with FirstRand Namibia in second place with N$ 471 thousand worth of shares traded. The local currency lost 2.13% against the US Dollar, to close at N$ 16.99 per USD, and lost 0.9% against the British Pound, to close at N$ 21.37 per GBP. It closed at N$ 19.14 against the Euro, a loss of 1.46%.
The Namibia Statistics Agency released the inflation figures for the month of May 2020, and revealed that annual inflation is now 2.1% compared to 4.1% the same time last year, having reduced from the 1.6% recorded for April 2020. Decreases in the price index was due to housing, water, electricity, and fuels (1.9% to -0.6%), and transport (7.6% to -0.1%). Zone 1 (Otjozondjupa, Kunene, Oshana, Omusati, Oshikoto, Ohangwena, Kavango East, Kavango West and Zambezi) saw inflation of 2.3% compared to 2.1% last month, with Zone 2 (Khomas) seeing inflation of 1.9% compared to 0.8% last month. Zone 3 (Omaheke, Hardap, Karas and Erongo) had inflation of 1.9%, compared to 2.2% last month.
