Kenya's bourse turnover doubles on increased foreign inflows

Turnover at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) doubled on Friday to 6.3 million U.S. dollars on a volume of 25 million shares from 34 million worth 3.2 million dollars, boosted by increased foreign inflows.

Foreign investors were net buyers during the session dominated by telecom and banks stocks, accounting for 72 percent of total purchases as opposed to 32 percent of total selling.

Safaricom, Kenya's leading telecommunication service provider, was the top trader moving 9.8 million shares at 0.18 dollars, a rise of 0.5 percent.

Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Barclays Bank and Cooperative Bank came in second, third and fourth respectively after moving 4.2 million, 2.7 million and 2.1 million shares at unchanged prices.

NSE closed the list of top five day's movers with 1.5 million shares at 0.13 dollars, a 0.4 percent decline.

However, despite the high trading, the highest net foreign inflows were recorded by East African Breweries Ltd, though its share price declined 0.5 percent to 2 dollars. On the other hand, Barclays Bank was the local investors' favourite.

The benchmark NSE 20 share Index shaved off 12 points to close the week at 2,812.04.

The index shed a total of 101.80 points during the week.

The All Share Index (NASI), on the other hand, ended the day at 122.28, down from 122.42 the previous day while the NSE 25 Share index closed at 3,137.62 from 3,160.28. Endit