Nairobi bourse trading down as U.S. announces poll results

Some 21 million shares valued at 5 million U.S. dollars were traded at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday, down from 27 million shares worth 7.2 million Tuesday, with the bourse appearing to have been affected by political activities in the United States.

Only four top stocks recorded gains on Wednesday, with trading unchanged or declining unlike in the past two days when a majority of the shares recorded gains.

Safaricom, Kenya's leading telecom, was the top mover, trading 7 million shares at unchanged price of 0.20 dollars, a drop from 16 million shares on Tuesday.

Equity Bank was the second top trader at the bourse with 5.8 million shares. In total, the banking sector had 8.6 million shares traded to account for 40 percent of the day's traded volume.

Kenya Power, in the energy sector, was the third best mover, trading 2.7 million shares of the 2.9 million that exchanged hands in the category.

Commercial and services sector moved 1.4 million shares, with Kenya Airways having 1.3 million shares of the total traded at 0.07 dollars.

The slow trading saw the NSE 20 Share Index go down 3.99 points to stand at 3,238.47 while the All Share Index (NASI) ended 1.25 points lower to stand at 138.55 and the NSE 25 Share Index dropped 9.07 points to stand at 3,671.64.

The bond market registered improved activity, with securities worth 27 million dollars transacted compared to 15 million dollars posted in the previous session. Endit