Stocks' negative turn keeps Nairobi bourse turnover low

Some 12 million shares valued at 2.7 million U.S. dollars were traded at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) Thursday as several stocks sustained negative turn, keeping turnover down.

On Wednesday, turnover stood at 2.3 million dollars on a volume of 11 million shares while on Tuesday, 3.3 million dollars for 16 million shares.

Safaricom, Kenya's leading telecom operator, once again was the top mover Thursday, trading 3.2 million shares at between 0.19 dollars and 0.20 dollars.

The banking sector cumulatively moved 3.3 million shares that represented 27 percent of the day's traded volume, with Kenya Commercial Bank Group actively trading 1.8 million shares of the total at 0.32 dollars.

Equity Bank, on the other hand, went up marginally to 0.38 dollars and moved 926,000 shares.

Scangroup, in the commercial sector, closed some cents higher to 0.15 dollars on a volume of 1.5 million shares of the 1.9 million traded.

The energy and petroleum sector had 1.6 million shares moved, with KenolKobil trading 1.4 million of the shares at unchanged price of 0.11 dollars.

The NSE 20 Share Index was down 13.12 points to stand at 3,450.10. Similarly, the All Share Index (NASI) shed 0.30 points to stand at 143.63 while the NSE 25 Share Index too was down 8.16 points to settle at 3,921.41.

The bond market recorded improved activity with securities worth 13 million dollars transacted compared to 5.9 million dollars transacted the previous session. Enditem