Nairobi bourse turnover down on falling foreign participation

Some 17 million shares valued at 3.4 million U.S. dollars were traded at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), a 47 percent drop from 32 million shares worth 6.4 million dollars posted Tuesday.

Foreign investors' participation stood at 70 percent from 75 percent in the previous session, with the foreigners accounting for 74 percent buying and 67 percent of total selling.

Equity Bank recorded the highest net foreign inflows to close 1.5 percent higher at 0.33 dollars while Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) recorded the most net foreign outflows as it shed 0.7 percent to also close at 0.33 dollars.

However, leading telecom Safaricom was the most traded stock moving 9.5 million shares at unchanged price of 0.18 dollars.

Barclays Bank came second after moving 1.8 million shares at 0.07 dollars, a decline of 0.06 percent while KCB transacted 1.7 million shares to close the day at the third spot.

The NSE 20 Share Index reversed a negative trend and added 4.29 points to stand at 3,101.12 while the All Share Index (NASI) was up 0.13 points to stand at 131.32 and NSE 25 Share Index rose 7.43 points to close at 3,489.87.

At the bond market, there was an upswing in activity with bonds worth 25 million dollars transacted compared to 18 million dollars registered the previous session. Enditem