Kenya Market Watch | May 19th 2015: Kenyan equities gain KES 5.6bn and indices up

Nairobi, Kenya (Capital Markets in Africa):- The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE20) index went up to 4,941.71 points, by adding 9.28 points and Nairobi All Share Index (NASI) added 0.35 points to close at 167.83. At the same time, the market capitalization gained KES 5.6 billion (about 0.21 percent) to close at KES 2,347.664 billion.

Looking at the market activities, KAPCHORUA TEA edged up by 8.62 percent to close at KES 126.00 to become today trading sessions’ top gainer. It is followed by UNGA GROUP Kenya which rose by 4.79 percent to end the day at KES 49.25 on 4,400 traded shares.  Likewise, STANDARD CHARTERED BANK Kenya and KENYA AIRWAYS Kenya advanced by 4.59 percent (to close at KES 319.00 on 12,300 traded shares) and 4.35 percent (to trade at KES 7.20 and volume recorded at 70,500) respectively.

On the other hand, OLMPIA HOLDINGS Kenya emerged the top loser, declining by 9.80 percent to close the day at KES 4.60 and recorded 240,300 traded volumes. Also, SAMEER BREWERIES Kenya went down by 7.77 percent to close at KES 4.75 on 317,300 traded volumes. FLAME TREE declined by 5.95 percent to settle at KES 7.9 as well as PAN AFRICA plummeted by 5.71 percent with a closing price of KES 82.50.

The volume of shares traded jumped by 14.90 percent to close at 19.46mn while total turnover shed off 34.37 percent to close at KES 630.25 million. SAFARICOM was the largest mover of the day with a turnover of KES 175.33mn representing 27.82 percent of total market turnover.  Foreign buys stood at 61.68 percent of total turnover, while foreign sales stood at 64.97 percent of total turnover.