Kenya's bourse turnover rises despite decline in shares traded

Turnover at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) rose to 7.6 million U.S. dollars from 6.3 million dollars in the previous session despite the number of shares traded falling to 19 million from 30 million.

Safaricom, Kenya's leading telecom operator, was the day's biggest mover, trading 11 million shares at unchanged price of 0.18 dollars. Thursday, the telecom traded 18 million shares at the same price.

Insurance firm Kenya-Re was the second top performer transacting 2 million shares at unchanged price of 0.22 dollars.

East African Breweries Ltd came in third with 1.4 million shares at 2.2 dollars ending the list of stocks that traded more than a million shares Friday.

Nation Media Group and Kenya Commercial Bank were the fourth and fifth top performing stocks after moving 889,800 and 864,900 shares respectively at prices that rose marginally.

Stockbrokers attributed the rise in turnover amid decline in shares traded to price increases of several stocks.

During the Friday session, the NSE 20 Share Index ended 11 points lower at 2,913.84 from 2,924.90 in the previous session, sustaining a negative trend that started Thursday.

The benchmark NSE 20 share Index lost 57.26 points during the week. Similarly, the All Share Index (NASI) went down to close at 124.04 from 124.21 and the NSE 25 Share Index declined to 3,230.72 points from 3,234.77.

A total of 107 million shares worth 29 million dollars were traded during the week from 123 million valued at 27 million dollars. Endit