Kenya's key stock index drops 938 points lower than a year ago

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) 20 Share Index, which measures the performance of top firms at the bourse, hit a new low Friday.

The key indicator closed the day at 3,867.50, a drop of four points from the previous trading session, and some 938 points lower than a year ago.

The NSE 20 Share Index has gone down about 20 percent in the past 12 months from 4,805.89 in May last year. The key index hit an all-time high of 5,499.64 in March 2015 and dropped to record low of 3,103.04 in December, 2011.

Similarly, the All Share Index (NASI) Friday ended lower during the week to stand at 145.54 points while the NSE 25 Share Index settled down at 4,188.81 points.

Analysts blamed the fall of the 20 Share Index to failure of prices of key stocks to make significant growth in the last one year, among them Kenya's leading telecom Safaricom.

Some 12 million shares worth 4.1 million U.S. dollars were traded Friday, up from 1.8 million dollars in the previous trading session.

Safaricom was the day's biggest mover with 4 million shares followed by Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group at 3 million.

In total, week-on-week turnover rose to 270 million dollars on a volume of 87 million shares, up from 200 million dollars from 78 million shares posted the previous week.

Safaricom saw 23 million shares changing hands during the week at 0.17 dollars, which represented 26 percent of the week's traded volume.

The banking sector had 34.2 million shares traded, which accounted for 39 percent of the week's traded volume. Equity Group Holdings was the most heavily traded counter in the sector, moving 15 million shares.

The energy and petroleum sector moved 12 million shares, the commercial and services 3.4 million shares and the manufacturing and allied sector 5.1 million shares.

The bond market registered a 303 percent increase in activity, with securities totaling to 254 million transacted compared to 63 million posted the previous week. Enditem