Kenya's stocks close week higher amid rise in turnover

NAIROBI, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) ended the week higher on Friday as both turnover and key indices surged, reversing a negative turn.

Turnover stood at 4.6 million U.S. dollars on a volume of 13.7 million shares, up from 3.6 million dollars from 10.9 million shares.

Safaricom, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Centum and Co-operative Bank accounted for 85 percent of the total turnover.

The most traded counters were, however, Safaricom, KCB, Co-operative Bank, Equity Bank and Centum, moving 4.7 million, 2.7 million, 1.9 million, 1.3 million and 840,000 shares respectively.

The NSE 20 Share Index was up 9.97 points to close at 3,713.25 points while the NSE All Share Index (NASI) was up 1.59 points to close at 180.25 points.

At least 14 stocks that make up the 20 Share Index rose on Friday by between 0.5 percent and 6 percent, lifting the index. The stocks include Safaricom, Sasini, Nation Media Group and Centum.

Foreign participation stood at 45 percent, up from 35 percent on Thursday, as local investors dominated trading at 55 percent.

On the bond market, turnover went up by 7.1 percent to stand at 21 million dollars. Enditem