Kenya's bourse trading low after two-day break

NAIROBI, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday registered low trading as the market resumed after Dec. 25-26 break.

Equity turnover declined to 2.8 million U.S. dollars on a volume of 12 million shares, from 16.4 million worth 4.5 million dollars at the end of last week on Friday.

Similarly, the benchmark NSE 20 Share Index dropped to 3,714.15 from 3,719.38.

The index was pulled down by several large stocks including Safaricom, which went down 2 percent, Cooperative Bank (3 percent), East African Breweries Ltd (4.9 percent) and Equity Bank (5 percent). Similarly, the All Share Index (NASI) was down to 170.00 from 171.62 points.

The most traded counters were Safaricom, KenolKobil, Barclays Bank, Uchumi and Kenya Commercial Bank, moving 7.5 million, 1.9 million, 535,500, 504,800 and 378,500 shares respectively.

Foreign participation stood at 76 percent from 65 percent last Friday while local decline to 24 percent, with the foreigners trading mainly Safaricom and Equity Bank.

At the bond market, turnover halved to 15 million dollars from a record 37 million dollars in the last session. Enditem