Bank stocks lift Nairobi bourse 20 Share Index 13 points up

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) 20 Share Index went up 13 points Tuesday, boosted by marginal rises of prices of bank stocks.

The NSE 20 Share Index closed the day at 4022.61, gravitating towards a new high after falling last week below the 4,000 psychological mark.

The All Share Index (NASI), on the other hand, shed 0.46 points to stand at 146.47 while the NSE 25 Share Index was down 15.62 points to settle at 4,239.24.

Some 12 million shares valued at 4.2 million U.S. dollars were traded Tuesday, from 58 million shares valued at 2.3 million posted on April 29.

The banking sector had 6.4 million shares traded, represented 50 percent of the day's traded volume. Under the category, Equity Group Holdings moved 3.8 million shares at a low of 0.40 dollars and a new high of 0.41 dollars. The bank was the day's biggest mover.

Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group was unchanged at 0.41 dollars and moved 2 million shares while the Co-op Bank moved 403,000 shares and closed at a high of 0.20 dollars.

Safaricom, under the telecommunication sector, moved 2.3 million shares at an average of 0.17 dollars.

The commercial and allied sector had 148,000 shares traded, with Kenya Airways rising marginally to trade at a high of 0.04 dollars on a volume of 109,000 shares.

Energy and petroleum sector moved 941,000 shares, with KenGen transacting 596,000 shares at 0.08 dollars.

The insurance sector had 627,000 shares traded while the manufacturing and allied sector moved 1.92 million shares, which accounted for 15 percent of the day's traded volume.

The bond market had securities worth 5.7 million dollars transacted down from 21 million dollars in last trading session. Endit