Kenya's bourse benchmark index extends four-year low decline

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) 20 Share Index lost 42 points Tuesday to hit 3,619.67 as it extended its four-year low decline.

The fall added to Monday's loss of 27 points making the benchmark index shedoff 71 points in two days as prices of key stocks continued to tumble.

Similarly, the All Share Index ended Tuesday 1.32 points lower to stand at 138.87 while the NSE 25 Share Index dropped 44.70 points to settle at 3,919.61.

The decline has pushed investors to the bonds market, with trading at the equities segment remaining subdued.

However, despite the current bear run, analysts have predicted that the equities market would rebound towards the end of the third quarter to lift the NSE 20 Share Index to above 3,700.00 points.

Some 26 million shares valued at 5.9 million U.S. dollars were traded Tuesday, up from 22 million shares valued at 5.5 million dollars.

The banking sector moved 15 million shares that represented 54 percent of the day's traded volume.

Under the category, Barclays Bank was the most heavily traded counter moving 6.6 million shares at unchanged price of 0.10 dollars.

Equity Bank actively moved 3.8 million shares at a fairly stable price of 0.39 dollars while Kenya Commercial Bank declined to 0.32 dollars from 0.33 dollars on a volume of 2.4 million shares.

In the telecommunication sector, Safaricom traded 7.7 million shares as the stock lost 0.8 percent of its price that averaged 0.17 dollars.

The insurance sector moved 1.5 million shares while the energy and petroleum 1.3 million.

At the bonds market, securities worth 14 million dollars were transacted compared to 19 million dollars Monday. Endit