Turnover drops at Kenya bourse on stifled foreign trading

Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) turnover dropped to 4.7 million U.S. dollars on a volume of 21 million shares Thursday, down from 24 million, worth 7.8 million dollars, pulled down by decline in foreign purchases and sales.

Foreign investors, whose participation stood at 81 percent from 77 percent Wednesday, cut buys by 18.3 percent and sales by 36 percent as they traded mainly Safaricom, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and Athi River Mining.

Safaricom, Kenya's leading telecom operator, was the top traded stock with 16.1 million shares at a unchanged price of 0.18 dollars. On Wednesday, Safaricom moved 6.2 million shares.

KCB was the second best traded stock after moving 2.3 million shares at a high of 0.32 dollars, down from 8.5 million shares.

At the third position was Athi River Mining, which moved 1.5 million shares at 0.23 dollars, while Equity Bank came fourth with 316,900 shares. Kenya Power was fifth with 304,300 shares.

The benchmark NSE 20 Share Index rose to 3,164.36 from 3,162.37 while the NSE All Share Index ended the day at 133.24 from 133.13 in the previous session. The NSE 25 Share Index stood at 3,534.49.

The bond market had securities worth 21 million dollars transacted, compared to 30 million dollars posted in the previous session. Endit