Kenya's bourse turnover swells 96 % as foreign investors increase buys

Equity turnover at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) surged 96 percent Monday to 8 million U.S. dollars from 24 million shares with Kenya's leading telecom Safaricom moving nearly half of the stocks traded.

In the last trading session Friday, turnover stood at 4.1 million dollars from 32 million shares as prices of key stocks, including Safaricom fell.

The telecom, however, Monday rebounded going up 1.2 percent to close slightly above 0.17 dollars from 0.16 dollars on a volume of 11.4 million shares.

The share has failed to beat the 0.18 dollars level it hit last year despite the telecom announcing a 320 million dollars profit last month, giving investors hope of reaping big.

The second top mover Monday was Equity Group Holding, trading 5.3 million shares at an unchanged price of 0.39 dollars.

Equity Group Holding and Safaricom shares dominated foreign investors' buys, with the foreigners, whose participation at the bourse stood at 68 percent, buying more than selling the stocks.

Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group came third after moving 2.2 million shares with the price going up 0.67 percent to 0.37 dollars.

Other top movers were surprise entrant Sasini with 1.7 million shares and Cooperative Bank at 1.1 million shares.

The NSE 20 Share Index went down 0.36 points to close at 3,801.03 while the NSE All share Index was up 0.35 points to close at 143.84. The NSE 20 Share Index has declined by about 6 percent or at least 980 points in the last one year.

Analysts have attributed the decline to drop in share prices of key stocks as foreign investors reduced their trading leaving 15 of the top 20 largest stocks in the red.

The NSE, which Monday elected a new board chairman and three directors, has retreated by at least 5 percent this year, making it difficult for investors to get yields. 

source : xinhua