Kenyan bourse declines in April as investors lock in profit

NAIROBI, May 7 (Xinhua) -- The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) recorded decline last month, with both the equity turnover and key indices going down.

Equities turnover decreased by 34 percent to 149.6 million U.S. dollars in April compared to 226.2 million dollars in March, an analysis of data from the NSE on Monday showed.

Similarly, the benchmark NSE 20 Share Index, the All Share Index (NASI) and the NSE 25 Share Index went down 6.1 percent, 2.9 percent and 7.1 percent respectively.

The NSE 20 Share Index closed April at 3,735.06, NASI at 179.53 and the 25 NSE Share Index at 4,700.38.

Analysts blamed the decline in equity turnover to profit-taking foreign investors who sold their shares after most stocks rose.

"The performance by the key indices was driven by declines in select large-cap stocks namely Safaricom, Equity Group Holdings and Standard Chartered Bank, which declined by 8.9 percent, 8.8 percent and 8.3 percent, respectively," said Cytonn, a Nairobi-based investment firm.

However, despite the decline, the NASI, NSE 20 and NSE 25 have gained 34.7 percent, 18 percent and 35.6 percent respectively for the last 12 months to April.

"We expect trading at the market to remain stable supported by positive investor sentiment this year, as investors take advantage of the attractive stock valuations on select counters," said Cytonn. Enditem