The local market was remained active this week, with the NSX Local index up 0.27% at 443, and the NSX Overall Index up 0.21% at 1411. As at 16 March, Capricorn Group was the largest local company on the exchange, with market capitalization of N$ 6.7 billion, followed by Namibia Breweries with N$ 6.4 billion, FirstRand Namibia with N$ 6.2 billion and Standard Bank Namibia with N$ 4.2 billion. Capricorn Group again lead the market this week with growth of 2.04% to close at N$ 12.99 per share, with Agra in second place at N$ 1.73 per share after growth of 1.17%. In terms of volume Capricorn Group also lead the market with N$ 4.2 million worth of shares traded, with Oryx Properties in second place with N$ 1.5 million worth of shares traded. The local currency gained 2.67% against the US Dollar, to close at N$ 14.88 per USD, and gained 2.68% against the British Pound, to close at N$ 20.67 per GBP. It closed at N$ 17.71 against the Euro, a gain of 2.66%.
The Namibia Statistics Agency released the inflation figures for the month of February 2021, and revealed that annual inflation is now 2.7% compared to 2.5% the same time last year, having remained flat from the 2.7% recorded for January 2021. The growth in the price index was due to increases in the prices of Food and non-alcoholic beverages (2.8% to 5.5%), Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (-0.5% to 1.5%), Communication (1.4% to 3.1%), Alcoholic beverages and tobacco (2.7% to 4.2%), Health (2.9% to 3.9%) and Miscellaneous goods and services (6.2% to 6.6%). Zone 1 (Otjozondjupa, Kunene, Oshana, Omusati, Oshikoto, Ohangwena, Kavango East, Kavango West and Zambezi) saw inflation of 2.4% compared to 1.7% last month, with Zone 2 (Khomas) seeing inflation of 2.6%, compared to 3.2% last month. Zone 3 (Omaheke, Hardap, Karas and Erongo) had inflation of 3.5%, compared to 3.2% last month.
