Foreign investors' Equity, Safaricom buys lift Nairobi bourse trading

Kenya's leading telecom Safaricom traded over 10 million shares Thursday at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) to lift equity turnover to 10 million U.S. dollars from 40 million shares as foreign investors dominated trading at 85 percent.

This was more than double from Tuesday's trading session where some 17 million shares worth 5 million dollars were traded, with Safaricom moving 6 million shares.

While the share price of the telecom remained unchanged at 0.17 dollars Thursday after the Wednesday public holiday, foreign investors went for the shares, trading 10.1 million shares.

Equity Bank, which was the day's top foreign investors' buy, was the second biggest mover with 6.2 million shares changing hands after a 0.63 percent gain to close the day at 0.40 dollars. The bank had on Tuesday moved 1.3 million shares.

Despite its share price dropping 3.5 percent to 0.16 dollars, Cooperative Bank was the third biggest mover, trading 5 million shares.

Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) was the fourth biggest mover, trading 4.9 million shares at 0.38 dollars, a drop of 1.29 percent.

Overall, Equity Bank, KCB, Safaricom, Cooperative Bank and EABL, which traded shares worth 2.2 million dollars, accounted for 95 percent of total turnover.

In terms of sector, the banking industry led with 17 million shares traded, representing 55 percent of the day's traded volume.

The manufacturing and allied sector moved 1.4 million shares, while the insurance had 1.2 million traded.

The NSE 20 Share Index went down 28.24 points to stand at 3,799.57 while the All Share Index (NASI) shed 0.10 points to close the day at 143.51. Similarly, the NSE 25 Share Index was down 6.87 points to settle at 4,103.51.

At the bond market, securities worth 370 million dollars were transacted, down from 440 million dollars Tuesday. Endit