Nairobi bourse up on banks, energy and telecom shares

Some 29 million shares worth 9.3 million U.S. dollars were traded at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday, up from 24 million shares totaling 7.8 million dollars Monday as banking, energy and telecommunication shares lifted trading.

Safaricom, Kenya's leading telecom, led the list of top movers, trading 9.4 million shares as the stock moved to hit the 0.18 dollars mark, a 2 percent higher.

Power generator, Kengen, was the second biggest mover, trading 6 million shares to close the day at a high of 0.07 dollars

The banking sector had 10.8 million, emerging the category with the most moved shares, which accounted for 37 percent of the traded volume.

Under the category, Equity Group Holdings' 4.8 million shares changed hands at an unchanged price of 0.40 dollars.

Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group, on the other hand, went down a few cents to 0.37 dollars to move 2.5 million shares, while Cooperative Bank moved 2 million shares and closed the day at a low of 0.16 dollars.

The manufacturing and allied sector had 1.3 million shares traded, which represented 5 percent of the day's traded volume.

Despite the improved trading, the NSE 20 Share Index was down 3.28 points to stand at 3797.74, a new low as prices of key stocks remained unchanged.

The All Share Index (NASI) ended 0.79 points higher to stand at 144.63, and the NSE 25 Share Index gained 10.61 points to settle at 4114.05.

The bond market had securities worth 320 million dollars transacted, down from 330 million dollars posted Monday. Endit