Nairobi bourse key index up slightly amid stifled trading

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) 20 Share Index went up marginally on Monday to close at 3,187.33 points as eight top stocks rose by up to 10 percent amid low trading.

The index gained 13.18 points, pushed up by increase in prices of Nation Media Group (10 percent), Kenya Power (2.5 percent), Bamburi (4.5 percent) and CFC Stanbic (2 percent).

Other stocks that saw price rises include leading telecom operator Safaricom (0.5 percent), trading at a high of 0.20 U.S. dollars, and Equity Bank (0.9 percent) at 0.26 dollars.

Equity Bank was the day's biggest mover with 5 million shares changing hands at 0.27 dollars while Kenya Commercial Bank moved 3 million shares at 0.25 dollars.

In total, the banking sector had 9.8 million shares traded to represent 60 percent of the day's trade volume. Safaricom, in the telecommunication sector, moved 1.1 million shares at between 0.19 dollars and 0.20 dollars.

The energy and petroleum sector moved 3.2 million shares, which accounted for 20 percent of the day's traded volume, with KenGen trading 2.3 million shares at 0.06 dollars.

The bond market had securities worth 3.2 million dollars transacted, a slight increase from 2.9 million dollars last Friday. Endit