Shares plunge amid market uncertainty

Share prices continue to plunge on the 16-counter Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE), resulting in the local bourse recording negative return on index of -1.53 percent last week. The situation, according to the Market Monthly Performance Report for January 2026, drifted the market into the negative territory from a positive return of 29.9 percent the previous week. The report further shows increasing volume of traded shares with low value, indicating that most sellers were desperate to sell their stocks even at reduced prices, a situation analysts say is influenced by market uncertainty following the introduction of capital gains tax.

Reads part of the report: “The market transacted a total of 34.86 million shares at a total consideration of K8.37 billion in 4 225 trades in the month of January 2026. “In the previous month of December 2025, the market transacted a total of 25.27 million shares at a total consideration of K15.38 billion in 3 260 trades.” The report said this represents a 37.95 percent increase in terms of share volume traded and a –45.58 percent decrease in share value traded. Daily average share trades exhibited similar trends where the market registered an average daily volume of 1.66 million shares compared to 1.20 million shares traded in December 2025, reflecting an increase of 37.95 percent, according to the report.

Out of the 16 listed companies, 13 registered share price losses with only two Sunbird Tourism plc and Illovo Sugar (Malawi) plc registering share price gains. In an interview on Sunday, Minority Shareholders Association of Listed Companies secretary general Frank Harawa said the situaiton is a result of market uncertainty following the introduction of capital gains tax. He said: “Despite some companies declaring good dividends, the shares continue to fall.

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This is not market correction this is shareholders cashing out because of the punitive capital gains tax. Harawa said the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Decentralisation has not clarified on the future of the capital gains tax and how it is to be implemented. “Such silence is not doing good for the market because it has brought alot of uncertainty,” he said.

In a separate interview, market analyst Brian Kampanje said there is panic selling of the shares in view of the uncertainty brought by capital gains tax. He said: “The tax has not been implemented yet as there are technicalities to decide the tax base, the fine-tuning of the trading platforms and central securities depository to be able to know how taxes are to be determined.

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