Nairobi bourse market capitalization expands to 21bln USD

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) market capitalization has expanded to above 21 billion U.S. dollars, pushed up by share price increases of selected stocks.

Market capitalization, which measures shareholders' wealth, has risen by at least 443 million U.S. dollars this week as the key index reverses a downward trend that had kept it below 20 billion dollars for months.

The bulk of the growth is attributable to Kenya's leading telecom operator Safaricom, whose share price clocked a new high of 0.22 dollars Wednesday.

The telecom's share price has gained about 2 percent this week and 30 percent since the start of the year as investors, mainly foreigners, scramble for the stock to cash in on dividend payment next month.

The growth makes the company account for 40 percent or 8.4 billion dollars of the bourse's 21 billion dollars capitalization.

The rise in market capitalization is a relief to investors who have seen their wealth eroded. The index in early 2015 stood at 26 billion dollars before a bear-run hit the market, making it shed 6 billion dollars.

At the start of January, market capitalization stood at 19.5 billion dollars and had failed to grow in the first half of the year due to share price erosion.

Apart from Safaricom, other stocks that have helped grow the key index are KenolKobil, I&M, Kenya Re and BAT Kenya, according to an analysis of NSE data. Enditem