Foreign investors sustain outflows at Nairobi bourse

Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) equity turnover slid 45 percent Thursday to 2.9 million U.S. dollars from 5.5 million dollars as foreign outflows outweighed inflows.

The trend was a continuation from the past two trading sessions, which were also dominated with sales, an indication that foreign investors, whose participation was down to 59 percent Thursday, are exiting the market.

Safaricom, Kenya's leading telecom operator, recorded the highest net outflows in the day's trading session at 6.4 million shares as the price remained unchanged at 0.19 dollars.

Athi River Mining was the second top mover, trading 2.3 million shares at unchanged price of 0.25 dollars.

The banking sector, which also recorded outflows, had 2.7 million shares traded, representing 19 percent of the day's traded volume. NIC Bank closed 3 percent higher to 0.26 dollars on a volume of 1 million shares while Barclays Bank was up to 0.08 dollars and moved 668,000 shares.

The construction sector had 2.3 million shares traded, which represented 16 percent of the day's traded volume. The energy sector, on the other hand, moved 1.4 million shares, with KenGen actively transacting 1.3 million at between 0.06 dollars.

The NSE 20 Share Index went down 4.79 points to stand at 3,242.32, while the All Share Index (NASI) inched 0.12 points higher to stand at 137.15.

The bond market registered improved activity, with 16 million dollars transacted compared to 7.8 million dollars posted the previous session. Endit