Safaricom grows investors' wealth at Nairobi bourse

Investors' wealth at Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has swelled by 416 million U.S. dollars in the last one week on Kenya's leading telecom operator Safaricom.

Safaricom's share price has risen in the last trading sessions touching an all-time high of 0.19 dollars Tuesday after the company announced a special dividend payout of 267 million dollars.

The move saw investors scramble for the stock to cash in, in turn pushing up its price and capitalization at the bourse to 7.5 billion dollars.

The development has helped grow market capitalization, which measures overall shareholders' wealth at the securities market.

At the end of last week, market capitalization stood at 19.7 billion dollars having remained almost unchanged at different trading sessions due to decline in prices of stocks.

However, Monday, the key index rose marginally to 19.8 billion dollars as Safaricom's share price went up. Tuesday, investors' wealth went up 2 percent on Safaricom's surge to close the day at 20.1 billion dollars, a new high.

The gain was sustained during the Wednesday's trading session when market capitalization increased, though slightly, to 20.2 billion dollars.

The gain is a big relief to investors as the index that started the year at 19.5 billion dollars had failed to make meaningful growth as prices of various top stocks tumble.

Besides Safaricom, Equity Bank price gain also helped push up market capitalization. The share Wednesday gained 3 percent to settle at 0.39 dollars, pushing the firm's capitalization at the bourse to 1.5 billion dollars. Endit