Kenya Market Watch | June 16th 2015: Kenya equity market returns to positive, market cap adds KES 1.8 billion.

Nairobi, Kenya (Capital Markets in Africa):-  The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE20) index surged by 13.65 points to close at 4,773.23 points and Nairobi All Share Index slide by 0.13 points to settle at 162.88. However, the FTSE NSE 25 and FTSE NSE 15 indices plummeted by 0.21 points and 0.04 points to close 217.67 and 217.31 points respectively. The market capitalization added KES 1.8 billion (about 0.08 percent) to close at KES 2,278.26 billion.

Looking at the market activities, the volume of shares traded soared by 63.31 percent to close at 18.88 million and total turnover gained by 18.71 percent to close at KES 516.49 million. SAFARICOM was the largest mover of the day with a turnover of KES 177.60 million accounted for 34.39 percent of total market turnover. Equally, KCB Group was the second largest turnover of KES 103.449 million and Equity Group was the third largest turnover recorded at KES 48.858 million. In term of type of investor, foreign buys stood at 23.79 percent of total turnover, while foreign sales stood at 51.92 percent of total turnover.

From the market shakers and laggards’ viewpoint, Standard Group was the highest market gainer edging up by 8.96 percent to close the day at KES 26.50. It is follow by Kenya Airways, by gaining 6.25 percent to close the day at KES 6.80 and WILLIAMSON TEA climbed by 4.25 percent to settle at KES 360.00.  Conversely, Express Kenya emerged the top loser, declining by 8.33 percent to close the day at KES 5.50. Also, UCHUMI Supermarket dropped by 8.21 percent to trade at KES 8.95 on 228,500 traded securities.

On currency front, Kenyan Shilling depreciated against US Dollar by 0.09 percent to trade at KES 97.33 and British Pound by 0.57 percent to close at KES 151.89. Also, the Kenyan Shilling depreciated against Euro, South African Rand and Rwandan Franc by 0.83 percent to close at KES 109.77, 0.46 percent to close at KSE 7.84, 0.10 percent to close at KES 7.50. However, the Kenyan Shilling appreciated by 0.61 percent and 0.01 percent against Tanzanian Shilling and Ugandan Shilling respectively.