NAIROBI, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Some 10 years ago, an enthusiastic Nairobi resident George Muteshi bought several stocks at the Kenyan bourse after visiting a brokerage firm for advice.
He bought the stocks of leading telecommunication firm Safaricom and those of two banks, expanding his portfolio after having purchased the shares of power generating firm Kenya Electricity Generating Company during an Initial Public Offers (IPO) in 2006.
"I spent 50,000 shillings (about 495 U.S. dollars) on the three stocks, adding to the 200 dollars I had spent earlier on the power firm share. My aim was to hold onto the stocks, wait for the prices to rise and cash in," said the accountant.
His plan worked well with the telecom shares, which he sold when prices went up and bought again. However, to date, he is still stuck with the other three as prices are too low.
On Monday, Muteshi was surprised that the shares had been listed under unclaimed assets by the government's Unclaimed Assets Authority, after having forgotten about them for years.
"The shares prices declined below the buying price and I decided to forget about them hoping things will change for the better but they worsened. This made me lose interest in the market," he recounted on Tuesday.
Muteshi's plight captures that of many ordinary Kenyans who have kept off the bourse despite initial enthusiasm following several IPOs at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).
Many of them are counting losses after buying various stocks, especially through IPOs, hoping to cash in when prices rise.
However, years later, a number of the stocks are trading below their IPO prices heaping losses on the investors.
The result is that the interest that the ordinary citizens had developed into the market died out as stock prices declined amid a drought of IPOs at the NSE.
"Business bulletin was my favorite segment of the 9 p .m. news sometime back when I had interest in what's happening at the bourse after buying Kengen shares through an IPO sometime in 2006. I would monitor the stock prices to see how much I had gained," said government worker Joseph Mwombo.
Today, he no longer checks about the on-goings at the stock market as the share trades below the IPO price, and he is still stuck with it.
"I would not invest in the stock market any time sooner. Not when I am yet to recoup my money nearly 20 years later," he said.
In 2018, most stocks at the NSE, especially those of blue chips that ordinary Kenyans had invested in, took a beating, with most investors reaping losses as the shares ended the year lower than they started in January.
Data from the market showed that out of the 60 stocks listed at the market, only seven picked capital gains in 2018, as the rest tumbled by up to 87 percent in value.
A number of blue chips are, however, clawing back lost group currently.
Analysts attributed a number of reasons for the decline in Kenyan stocks, which include losses posted by the firms, corporate governance issues a number of them face and low dividends offered to investors.
The collapse of some stock brokerage firms in the country in the recent past made investors lose their investments, instilling fears in potential investors and making others disinterested.
Investing at the stock market, however, needs great patience, according to Rufus Mwanyasi, the director of Canaan Capital Ltd.
He notes that patience - a virtue which many small investors lack - ranks high as an important ingredient to achieving market success.
About 4 percent of Kenyans have bought shares at the Nairobi stock market, a recent survey by the Oxford Business Group showed.
Up to 80 percent of shares traded at the bourse every day are moved by foreigners, with Kenyan, mainly corporates like banks, accounting for the rest.
