Starting tomorrow the 3rd of October, Government of Kenya Treasury Bonds listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) will be measured by the new FTSE NSE Kenyan Shilling Government Bond Index borne through collaboration by the NSE and FTSE – the international index company.
The Index will be calculated at the end of each trading day based on prices of NSE listed government bonds that have a principal amount above 5 billion shillings and maturity of more than one year. It will have a base value of 100 and measure the average performance that holders of Kenyan Government Bonds experience over time and with a review at the end of every month.
The purpose of introducing the FTSE Treasury Bond Index is to create a benchmark for the global investment community eyeing Kenya for direct investments. World Bank data shows that Foreign Direct Investment into Kenya was at 15.6 billion shillings in 2010 having grown 60 percent from 9.7 billion shillings in 2009 and 8 billion shillings in 2008.