Nairobi bourse weekly share trading hits a record 358 mln

Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) weekly turnover swelled to 67 million U.S. dollars on a record volume of 358 million shares on Friday, boosted by foreign investors' robust trading of banking and telecom shares.

Kenya's leading telecom Safaricom, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and Equity Bank were the top counters during the week.

Safaricom was the week's biggest mover with 135 million shares changing hands at between 0.19 dollars and 0.2 dollars to account for 38 percent of the week's traded volume.

The banking sector had 195 million shares traded during the week, which accounted for 55 percent of the traded volume.

KCB was the most heavily traded counter in the sector with 86.4 million shares changing hands at a high of 0.28 dollars. Equity Bank closed the week 10 percent lower to 0.26 dollars on a volume of 78 million shares.

In the energy sector, some 7.5 million shares were traded, with KenGen actively moving 4.3 million shares at 0.06 dollars.

The NSE 20 Share Index was down 20 points during the week to close at 3,187.87 Friday. The All Share Index (NASI) shed 0.91 points during the week to settle at 134.06 and the NSE 25 Share Index lost 66.38 points to settle at 3,485.42.

The bond market registered improved activity with securities worth 88 million dollars transacted compared to 59 million dollars posted the previous week. Endit