Equity prices surged, trading activity strengthened, and investor wealth expanded despite a volatile global economic environment.
According to the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) 2025 markets supervision report, combined income by licensed stockbrokers rose 10 per cent to Sh947 million from Sh860 million in 2024, while net profit jumped 139 per cent to Sh369.2 million.
This underlines the improved health of Kenya’s capital markets, with the earnings growth reflecting one of the NSE’s best years in recent times.
The benchmark NSE 20 Share Index climbed 56 per cent to 3,139.2 points at the end of 2025 from 2,010.7 points a year earlier, while the exchange’s market capitalisation expanded by more than Sh1 trillion to Sh2.94 trillion.
Bond market turnover also almost doubled to Sh2.71 trillion as investors increased activity in government securities.
The broader market also recorded strong gains.
Equity turnover improved from about Sh106 billion in 2024 as trading volumes remained robust throughout the year, while the NSE All Share Index (NASI), NSE 25 Share Index and NSE 10 Share Index all ended the year significantly higher than their 2024 levels.
This reflected renewed investor confidence across blue-chip counters.
The rally was supported by easing macroeconomic pressures, improved corporate earnings, and growing foreign investor interest after several years of subdued activity.
Among brokerage firms, EFG Hermes retained its position as the industry’s biggest revenue earner after posting Sh242.3 million in income, followed by AIB-AXYS Africa with Sh177.3 million.
However, Kingdom Securities emerged as the most profitable broker, reporting Sh128 million in earnings, ahead of EFG Hermes, which generated Sh84.1 million in profit.
Kestrel Capital was the only major brokerage to report a loss during the year, highlighting the uneven recovery across the sector.
The improved fortunes of stockbrokers coincided with a sharp increase in trading activity at the exchange.
Investors traded more than 6.34 billion shares during the year, with activity remaining heavily concentrated in a handful of blue-chip companies.
Safaricom maintained its dominance as the most actively traded counter after investors exchanged 1.91 billion shares, representing 30 per cent of all shares traded on the exchange.
Kenya Reinsurance Corporation ranked second with 801.9 million shares, accounting for 13 per cent of total market volume, while KCB Group came third after recording trades worth 530.5 million shares, or about 8 percent of total volumes.
KenGen followed closely with 485.5 million shares traded, while Equity Group rounded off the top five after 371.9 million shares changed hands.
Other counters that featured among the 10 most actively traded stocks included Co-operative Bank, East African Breweries (EABL)and Diamond Trust Bank.
NCBA Group and Absa Bank Kenya closed the top 10 list, underscoring the banking sector’s continued dominance in equity market activity.
The CMA report shows September was the busiest trading month of the year, with investors exchanging 847.6 million shares.
Activity slowed in subsequent months, reaching its lowest level in April when 361.6 million shares were traded before recovering in May and June.
While blue-chip stocks attracted the bulk of investor interest, several listed firms remained largely illiquid.
Africa Mega Agricorp (AMAC) was the least traded stock, after only 7,768 shares changed hands during the year.
Other thinly traded counters included Limuru Tea, Sameer Africa, Williamson Tea Kenya, Home Afrika, Unga Group, Standard Group, Car & General, TPS Eastern Africa (Serena Hotels), and Kenya Orchards.
This illustrated limited investor appetite for smaller and less liquid stocks.
The strong performance in 2025 laid the foundation for an even stronger rally this year.
The NSE has continued to scale new highs, with market capitalisation recently climbing to a record Sh3.89 trillion as all major equity indices advanced.
The Banking Sector Index remains the best-performing benchmark, while the NSE 20 Share Index has moved within touching distance of the 4,000-point mark for the first time since 2018.
This reinforces confidence that Kenya’s capital market recovery is gathering momentum despite intermittent foreign investor outflows.
