Kenya Equity Watch | 05 Aug 2015: Bear remains persistent on the Nairobi Securities Exchange … All share index down by 0.29%

Nairobi, Kenya (Capital Markets in Africa) — The bear remained persistent on the Nairobi Securities Exchange at the end of Wednesday’s trading session. The market capitalization fell by 0.29 percent or KES 6 billion (almost US$59.42 million) to end at KES 2,042 billion relative to market capitalization of KES 2,048 billion recorded at previous trading session.

T he Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE20) index plunged by 25.93 points or 0.60 percent to close at 4,317.23 points and the Nairobi All Share Index declined by 0.43 points or 0.29 percent to settle at 145.82 points. The FTSE NSE 15 index and FTSE NSE 25 index plunged by 0.31 percent at188.96 points and plummeted by 0.37 percent to end at 187.79 respectively.

Look at today’s market activities, the volume of shares traded dropped 39.47 percent to close at 63.97 million and total turnover declined 1.42 percent to close at KES 1,853.32 million. Equity Group was the largest mover of the day with a turnover of KES 771.79 million representing 41.64 percent of the total market turnover.  Among five top actively traded stocks by turnover were KCB Group recorded a turnover of KES 442.276 million and SAFARICOM registered KES 384.816 million. Also, East Africa Breweries Limited and Nation Media Group recorded a turnover of KES 96.229 million and KES 37.278 million respectively. In term of type of investor, foreign buys stood at 86.17 percent of total turnover, while foreign sales stood at 92.14 percent of total turnover.

Today’s price mover was Sameer Africa Limited which emerged as the top gainer after adding 8.89 percent to end the day at KES 4.90. East Africa Portland Cement climbed by 7.41 percent to close the day at KES 58.00 after investors bought and sold 3,300 shares. MUMIAS Sugar advanced by 5.26 percent to settle at KES 2.00. Similarly, Nation Bank and Longhorn Kenya Limited accelerated by 3.75 percent to settle at KES 20.75 and 2.19 percent to settle at KES 7.00 respectively.

On the contrary the price slacker was Marshalls East Africa emerged as the top loser after losing 8.40 percent to end the day at KES 12.00. Likewise, Express Kenya traded at KES 4.60 by losing 7.07 percent and Flame Tree tumbled by 5.66 percent to trade at KES 7.50. Kenya Airways also declined by 4.67 percent to end at KES 5.10 as well as WPS Scangroup Limited somersaulted by 4.61 percent to end at KES 36.25 after investors bought and sold 4,400 shares.

On foreign exchange market front, Kenya Shilling strengthens against majority of the trading currencies today. Kenyan Shilling appreciated by 0.21 percent against US dollar to trade at KES 101.11. Also, Kenyan Shilling gained against British pound by 0.56 percent to end at KES 157.10 and against the Euro to close at KES 109.85, by adding 0.98 percent. Likewise, Kenyan shilling rose by 0.94 percent against South African rand to trade at KES 7.92.