Nairobi bourse sustains foreign inflows amid low turnover

Some 30 million shares worth 6.3 million U.S. dollars were transacted at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) Thursday in a session foreign inflows outweighed outflows.

The trading was a decline from a record turnover of 10 million dollars on a volume of 38 million shares Wednesday.

Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Safaricom, Equity Bank and Kenya-Re were the top traded stocks, attracting foreign investors whose participation stood at 89 percent.

Safaricom, the leading telecom in Kenya, saw its 18 million shares traded at 0.18 dollars, an increase of 1.1 percent. The telecom operator traded 29 million shares on Wednesday.

KCB actively moved 3 million shares at 0.27 dollars to end the day as the second best while Equity Bank moved 1.9 million shares at an improved price of 0.26 dollars.

In total, the banking sector had 6.6 million shares traded to account for 22 percent of the day's traded volume.

Kenya-Re was the most heavily traded counter in the insurance category with 2 million shares changing hands at 0.23 dollars to close the day as the third moved stock. In total, the insurance sector had 2.4 million shares transacted.

The NSE 20 Share Index ended 7.88 points down at 2,924.90, reversing a rise Wednesday while the All Share Index (NASI) was up 0.02 points to stand at 124.21 and the NSE 25 Share Index rose 1.94 points to 3,234.77.

The bond market registered improved activity with securities worth 26 million dollars transacted compared to 19 million posted the previous session. Endit