Kenya's bourse key indicator dips on drop of large stocks

NAIROBI, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) benchmark index declined considerably on Tuesday, pushed down by a drop in prices of most of the shares that make the indicator.

The NSE 20 Share Index was down 34.44 points, the biggest decline in recent times, to close at 3,769.34 points.

The index was pulled down by fall of Safaricom, Kenya Power, Kengen, Nation Media Group and British America Tobacco (BAT), among others, which declined by between 1 and 7 percent. Similarly, the NSE All Share Index (NASI) was down by 0.31 points to close at 173.30 points.

Safaricom, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Equity Bank, BAT and NSE (which is also listed at the bourse) accounted for 83 percent of the total turnover.

The most traded counters were, however, Safaricom, KCB, Equity, Home Afrika and Cooperative Bank moving 6.6 million, 2.3 million, 1.5 million, 1.1 million and 600,000 shares respectively.

A total of 16 million shares worth 4.5 million U.S. dollars were traded, a decline of 41 percent from 26 million shares worth 7.6 million shares in the previous session.

Foreign participation stood at 57 percent and local participation stood at 43 percent. The foreigners were net sellers.

At the bond market, turnover went up by 55 percent to stand at 31 million dollars from 20 million dollars on Monday. Enditem