While the Nairobi Securities Exchange 20 Index has dropped 12.4 points since the siege began Saturday, foreign investors accounted for 72.8 percent of all buying and 42.6 percent of all sales on Monday, according to a report from Standard Bank.
Foreign investor participation accounted for 58 percent of all trades, which is up from the 57 percent average of last week, according to the report.
On Tuesday, Kamau Thugge, permanent secretary of the Kenyan Treasury, made assurances that the economy has not suffered because of the attack.
“This incident has not affected our debt-servicing capacity; we still intend to issue the sovereign bond; and it should not affect the growth of the economy, which we are expecting to be at 5.5 percent to 6 percent,” he said in a statement.
Foreign investors are often notoriously averse to politically unstable regions, but at least in this case they seem to be staying put.
In Africa overall, foreign direct investment has been on a slow rise -- growing 5 percent in 2012 to $50 billion, according to a report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. According to the report, private equity investment ranges across numerous sectors but is concentrated in just a few countries.
The four most popular sectors for foreign equity investment were business services, information technology, industrial products and telecom, media and communications. FDI by private equity funds is diverse in terms of industries but still remains small. However, "these funds are likely to become more active in FDI globally and in Africa, as the world economy recovers from its current doldrums," the report states.
South Africa accounts for more than half of all investments, and hosted most of the largest FDI deals by private equity firms between 1996 and 2012.
Here is a list of the top 10 largest FDI deals by private equity firms in Africa from 1996 through 2011.
*Acquisitions by shareholders or a group of investors include private equity funds as a partner.UNCTD
