Nairobi bourse key index sheds 33 points amid rise in trading

The number of shares traded at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) rose by 10 million Tuesday from 7 million in the previous trading session, but a drop in share prices of key stocks pushed NSE 20 Share Index 33 points down.

The key index closed the day at 3,827.80 as its downward trend continued.

Equity turnover stood at 5 million U.S. dollars Tuesday, a huge improvement from 1.7 million dollars Monday.

Some of the stocks whose prices went down include that of Kenya's leading telecom Safaricom, which dropped 0.29 percent to about 0.17 dollars.

The company was the top mover, trading 6 million shares up from 2.5 million shares in the previous session.

Regional oil marketer Kenol Kobil, under the energy and petroleum sector, was the second biggest mover, trading 4 million shares at 0.10 dollars.

Most prices of shares in the banking sector recorded a plunge or remained unchanged. In total, the sector had 3.7 million shares traded that represented 22 percent of the day's traded volume.

Equity Group Holdings, under the category, remained unchanged at 0.39 dollars and moved 1.3 million shares.

Kenya Commercial Bank moved 1.2 million shares and closed the day at 0.38 dollars while I&M Holdings moved 212,000 shares at slightly over a dollar.

The All Share Index eased 0.82 points to stand at 143.61 while the NSE 25 Share Index shaved off a total of 32.91 points to stand at 4,110.38. Endit