Equity, Safaricom shares attract foreign buys at Nairobi bourse

Some 19 million shares worth 6.7 million U.S. dollars were traded Thursday at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) as foreign investors traded mainly Safaricom, East African Breweries Ltd (EABL), Equity Bank and Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) stocks.

The foreign investors whose participation at the bourse stood at 74 percent, bought Safaricom and Equity Bank shares more than they sold. On the other hand, they sold more EABL and KCB shares more than they bought.

Safaricom, in the telecommunication sector, moved a total of 7 million shares worth 1.2 million dollars, with the price rising marginally by 0.87 percent to 0.17 dollars.

The banking sector had 6 million shares traded, with Equity Bank moving 2.5 million shares at between 0.39 dollars and 0.41 dollars.

KCB Group declined slightly to 0.41 dollars on a volume of 1.7 million shares while Co-op Bank moved 1.2 million at 0.18 dollars.

The manufacturing and allied sector saw 2.4 million shares traded, with Mumias Sugar moving 1.4 million shares and EABL trading at a high of 3 dollars.

The NSE 20 Share Index was up 2.39 points to stand at 3,880.81; the All Share Index (NASI) ended 0.59 points higher at 146.33 while the NSE 25 Share Index was up 8.00 points to close the day at 4,205.87.

The bond market recorded a decline in trading with bonds worth 8.8 million traded, down from 190 million dollars the previous day. Endit