Kenya's bourse turnover slides as investors eye bonds

NAIROBI, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Some 16 million shares worth 5.1 million dollars were traded at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday as trading remained subdued.

The turnover was a decline from 6.2 million dollars from 21 million shares traded on Tuesday, with investors said to be shifting to the secondary bond market and the primary debt market, where the east African nation is offering 388 million dollars in Treasury bond for budgetary support.

Safaricom, Kenya's leading telecom operator, was the top mover at the bourse on Tuesday, trading 6.9 million shares at 0.29 dollars, a 0.8 percent rise.

The stock was followed by Equity Bank, which moved 1.81 million dollars at unchanged price of 0.43 percent, while Cooperative Bank came third with 1.8 million shares traded at 0.17 dollars.

Carbacid came fourth during the session after moving 1.3 million shares while Kenya Commercial Bank closed the list of the top five most-traded stocks after moving 1.1 million shares.

The NSE 20 Share Index declined 1.67 points to end the day at 3,727.65 points, down from 3,729.32, while the Nairobi All Share Index went up marginally to close at 178.35, a rise of 0.32 percent. Enditem