Investors scramble for Safaricom shares ahead of profit announcement

Shares of Kenya's leading telecom firm Safaricom accounted for 64 percent of total volume at the Nairobi Securities Exchange on Thursday as investors scrambled for the stocks ahead of the company's announcement of its 2015 results.

The telecom moved 22.2 million shares out of the total 34 million valued at 9 million U.S. dollars traded at the bourse.

A total of 27 million shares valued at 7 million dollars had been traded the previous day, with Safaricom contributing 15 million.

The company is expected to announce a record full-year profit sometime in May or earlier, with analysts having projected the income would hit over 356 million dollars.

Half-year profit announced in November last year stood at 178 million dollars.

By the time the financial results are announced, the shares which debuted at the Nairobi bourse at 0.05 dollars in 2008 would perhaps have surpassed a best high of 0.18 dollars.

Safaricom shares on Thursday traded at a low of 0.16 dollars and a high of 0.17 dollars, a marginal rise from the previous trading session.

On the other hand, the banking sector saw 8.3 million shares traded, representing about 24 percent of the day's traded volume.

KCB Group, under the category, was the most-heavily traded counter with 3.4 million shares changing hands at between 0.40 dollars and 0.42 dollars. Equity Bank moved 1.7 million shares and closed at 0.41 dollars.

In the energy and petroleum sector, KenolKobil moved 993,000 shares and closed at an improved price of 0.10 dollars.

As in the previous day, the NSE 20 Share Index closed the day 2.40 points higher to stand at 3,927.65 while the All Share Index (NASI) edged up 0.37 points to settle at 145.72. On the other hand, the NSE 25 Share Index was up 3.40 points to stand at 4,230.84.

At the bond market, bonds worth 25 million dollars were transacted, down from 34 million dollars recorded the previous day. Endit