Nairobi bourse turnover drops 227 pct on investors' apathy

Turnover at Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) declined by 227 percent on Thursday to 5.8 million U.S. dollars on a volume of 27 million shares from 38 million shares worth 19 million dollars in the previous session as investors withheld trading.

Kenya's leading telecom operator, Safaricom, which was the top trader Wednesday with 57 million shares, traded a paltry 6 million shares at an unchanged price of 0.19 dollars.

Kenya Commercial Bank was the day's biggest mover, with 8.2 million shares changing hands at 0.27 dollars, a marginal rise. Equity Bank, on the other hand, went up some cents to 0.26 dollars and moved 2.7 million shares.

In total, the banking sector traded 12.3 million shares to represent 44 percent of the day's traded volume.

The commercial and services sector had 5 million shares traded, with national carrier Kenya Airways moving 4.8 million shares of the total after plunging 4.2 percent to 0.03 dollars.

The NSE 20 Share Index went up 11.67 points during the Thursday trading to stand at 3,180.29, buoyed by marginal rise of banking stocks.

On the other hand, the All Share Index ended 0.12 points lower to stand at 130.87 while the NSE 25 Share Index was up 1.86 points to settle at 3,422.56.

The bond market had securities worth 9.8 million dollars transacted compared to 15 million posted Wednesday. Enditem