Kenya's key stock index declines after 9 straight gains

Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) 20 Share Index went down for the first time this month on Monday after losing momentum it had peaked to close the day at 2,933.69, down from 2,951.62 in the previous session.

The index, which had dropped to an eight-year low of 2,789.64 on Jan. 30, had been on a rally until Monday when it lost the 18 points.

Trading, similarly, slowed down 48 percent as turnover stood at 3.3 million U.S. dollars on a volume of 16.3 million dollars from 32 million worth 6.2 million dollars in previous session.

Foreign investors accounted for 80 percent of total purchases against 66 percent total selling during the session.

Safaricom was the day's biggest mover trading 4.3 million shares at a declined price of 0.17 dollars, a drop of 0.4 percent. In the last session, the bourse traded 12 million shares.

Cooperative Bank, which attracted buys, was the second best stock during the session after trading 4.1 million shares at 0.11 dollars, down from 10.1 million in the last session.

Electricity generator Kengen exchanged 2.4 million shares to end the day as the third most traded stock at 0.06 dollars, a high of 2.5 percent.

Athi River Mining and Equity Bank closed the session's top five list, after moving 1.3 million and 826,900 shares at declined prices.

The All Share Index (NASI) shed 0.34 points to settle at 125.11 while the NSE 25 Share Index dropped 9.55 points to stand at 3,253.25.

The bond market witnessed improved activity with securities worth 13 million dollars transacted compared to 5 million posted the previous session. Endit