Dar es Salaam, Aug. 12 -- THIS week was dominated by the auction of the 25-year government bond, which I was looking forward to. And it did not disappoint. Yet before dissecting this, it is worth pausing to take stock of the equity markets latest moves, which themselves paint a telling picture of our current environment.

The equity market registered a cooling in turnover, declining 17.32 per cent from 30.02bn/- to 24.82bn/-. Interestingly, volumes ticked higher by 1.57 per cent week-on-week, suggesting that while more shares changed hands, capital flows gravitated toward counters with lower absolute share prices.

Total market deals also contracted, from 6,345 deals the prior week to 4,770, underscoring the selective nature of participat...