Kenya's bourse key index falls 2pct

Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) 20 Share Index lost 66 points or 2 percent this week to end Friday at 3,801.39, 972 points lower than a year ago.

The index has been on a downward trend in the past weeks, after hitting 4,050 points early last month, as share prices of key stocks drop or remain unchanged.

Other key indices namely the All Share Index (NASI) too went down 2.1 points during the week to stand at 143.49 Friday while the NSE 25 Share Index lost 73.99 points to settle at 4,114.82.

During the Friday trading, regional oil marketer Kenol Kobil was the top mover, trading 9.2 million shares followed by leading telecom Safaricom with 4.2 million shares.

A total of 32 million shares worth 4 million U.S. dollars were traded Friday, down from 40 million totalling 10 million dollars Thursday.

KenolKobil, which was the most heavily traded counter under the energy and petroleum sector, during the week, moved 13 million shares at unchanged price of 0.10 dollars out of the total 17 million shares.

Safaricom, on the other hand, moved 22.6 million shares at an unchanged price of 0.17 dollars, which represented 29 percent of the week's traded volume.

The banking sector, which performed dismally Friday, had 27 million shares traded during the week, with Equity Group Holdings actively moving 9 million, Kenya Commercial Bank Group 7.4 million and Cooperative Bank 7.6 million. The banks shares prices went down by up to 9 percent.

The insurance sector moved 3.3 million shares, the manufacturing and allied sector 3 million while the commercial and services 1.4 million.

The bond market registered reduced activity with securities worth 130 million dollars transacted compared to 250 million dollars posted the previous week. Endit