Investors have warmed to Kenya’s Treasury bonds as East African nation’s cases of COVID-19 decline.
Uptake of the long-term securities hit a new high this week, with investors offering the government 81.68 billion shillings (about 756 million U.S. dollars) out of 462 million dollars sought, according to auction data from the Central Bank released Friday.
This is a subscription of 163 percent, the highest in recent times for the securities offered monthly.
The government issued three papers, a 15-year and 20-year, which were reopened after initial sale close to a decade ago and a 15-year fresh bond.
The newly issued bond was the investors’ favorite, attracting some 453 million dollars as the other two got the rest.
Analysts attributed the performance to the return of foreign investors at a time COVID-19 cases are declining. The investors have also returned to the stock market, lifting fortunes that had dwindled due to COVID-19.