Kenya Equity Watch | 29 July 2015: Kenya equity markets ended in a mixed feelings … All shares index down and NSE20 index up

Nairobi, Kenya (Capital Markets in Africa) — Kenya equity markets ended in a mixed feelings at end of Wednesday’s trading session. The market capitalization fell by 0.58 percent or KES 12.39 billion (almost US$121 million) to end at KES 2131.59 billion relative to market capitalization of KES 2,143.97 billion recorded at previous trading session.

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE20) index picked up by 46.57 points or 1.04 percent to close at 4,532.28 points but the Nairobi All Share Index declined by 0.88 points or 0.57 percent to settle at 152.22 points. The FTSE NSE 15 index and FTSE NSE 25 index plunged by 1.16 percent at197.85 points and plummeted by 1.26 percent to end at 199.91 respectively.

Look at today’s market activities, the volume of shares traded rose 5.13 percent to close at 35.36mn. Total turnover shrank by 23.01 percent to close at KES 620.83mn. Safaricom was the largest mover of the day with a turnover of KES 251.10mn representing 20.16 percent of the total market turnover. Among five top actively traded stocks by turnover were Equity Group recorded a turnover of KES 130.192 million and KENOIL KOBIL registered KES 76.026 million. Also, Co-operative Bank and East Africa Breweries Limited recorded a turnover of KES 29,305 million and KES 24.947 million respectively. In term of type of investor, buys stood at 58.41 percent of total turnover, while foreign sales stood at 63.13 percent of total turnover.

Today’s price mover was KAPCHORUA TEA which emerged as the top gainer after adding 10.00 percent to end the day at KES 220.00. British-American Investments Company Kenya climbed by 9.66 percent to close the day at KES 17.60 after investors bought and sold 521,800 shares. Pan Africa Insurance advanced by 9.52 percent to settle at KES 69.00. Similarly, Olympia Capital Holdings and British-American Tobacco climbed by 8.70 percent to settle at KES 5.00 and 7.84 percent to settle at KES 798 respectively.

On the contrary the price slacker was National Bank Kenya emerged as the top loser after losing 6.82 percent to end the day at KES 20.50. Likewise, Atlas Development & Support Services traded at KES 9.50 by losing 5.94 percent. On the same trend, Umeme Limited and Sameer Africa Limited tumbled by 5.60 percent to trade at KES 16.00 and 3.96 percent to end at KES 4.85 respectively. KCB Group also declined by 3.74 percent to end at KES 51.50 after investors bought and sold 243,400 shares.

On foreign exchange market front, Kenya Shilling was weaker against majority of the trading currencies today. Kenyan Shilling depreciated by 0.38 percent against US dollar to trade at KES 102.43. Also, Kenyan Shilling declined against British pound by 0.57 percent to end at KES 159.89 and against the Euro to close at KES 113.21, by losing 0.14 percent. Likewise, Kenyan shilling depreciated by 0.66 percent against South African rand to trade at KES 8.16.