Kenya Equity Watch | 10 Aug 2015: Nairobi Securities Exchange opened the week in the green zone and all indices ended in the North Pole

Nairobi, Kenya (Capital Markets in Africa) — The Nairobi Securities Exchange opened the week in the green zone and all indices ended in the North Pole. The market capitalization surged by 2.19 percent or KES 46.2 billion (almost US$457 million) to end at KES 2,153 billion relative to market capitalization of KES 2,107 billion recorded at previous trading session.

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE20) index jumped by 68.49 points or 1.55 percent to close at 4,415.09 points and the Nairobi All Share Index increased by 3.29 points or 2.19 percent to settle at 153.74 points. The FTSE NSE 15 index and FTSE NSE 25 index gained 4.01 percent at 197.94 points and surged by 4.29 percent to close at 197.03 respectively.

Look at today’s market activities, volume of shares traded climbed by 10.47 percent to close at 19.15 million and the total turnover rose by 6.24 percent to close at KES 499.22 million. SAFARICOM was the largest mover of the day with a turnover of KES 155.99 million representing 31.25 percent of the total market turnover.  Other top five most actively traded stocks were, KCB Group recorded a turnover of KES 155.985 million and Equity Group recorded KES 86.582 million. East Africa Breweries Limited and Co-operative Bank Kenya had a turnover of KES 33.635 million and KES 11.536 million respectively. In term of type of investor, foreign buys stood at 80.35 percent of total turnover, while foreign sales stood at 75.21 percent of total turnover.

Today’s price mover was Kakuzi Limited which emerged as the top gainer after gaining 8.62 percent to end the day at KES 353.00. British-American Investment Company climbed by 7.42 percent to close the day at KES 19.55. UNGA Group Limited Kenya gained 6.88 percent to settle at KES 42.75. Similarly, Crown Berger Paint Limited and SAFARICOM advanced by 6.15 percent to settle at KES 69.00 and gained 5.50 percent to settle at KES 15.35 respectively.

Car and General emerged the top loser, declining by 3.57 percent to close the day at KES 40.50. Among the top five losers were, TPS Serena traded at KES 32.00 by losing 3.03 percent after exchanging 2.025 million shares and Diamond Trust Bank Kenya plummeted by 1.96 percent to trade at KES 200.00. Equity Group also plunged by 1.16 percent to end at KES 42.75 as well as East Africa Cables fell by 0.97 percent to end at KES 15.35.

On foreign exchange market front, Kenyan Shilling slightly rose by 0.09 percent against US dollar to trade at KES 101.11. Also, Kenyan Shilling gained against British pound by 0.29 percent to end at KES 156.58. On the contrary, the Kenya Shilling depreciated by 0.38 percent against the Euro to close at KES 110.90 and sagged by 0.49 percent against South African rand to trade at KES 8.00.