Kenya Market Watch | May 27th 2015: Kenyan equities shed more blood, lose KES 21 billion and indices down

Nairobi, Kenya (Capital Markets in Africa):- The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE20) index extended it bearish and shed off 17.69 point to 4,835.75 points as well as Nairobi All Share Index lost 1.49 points to close at 161.31. However, the FTSE NSE 25 and FTSE NSE 15 indices remained flat to close the day at 218.49 and 218.01 points respectively. The market capitalization lost almost KES 21 billion (cumulative lost of over KES 85 billion since start of bearish run) to close at KES 2,256.226.

Looking at the market activities, the volume of shares traded jumped by 201.72 percent to close at 76.03 million and total turnover soared by 58.54 percent to close at KES 1,547.90 million. SAFARICOM was the largest mover of the day with a turnover of KES 980.51 million representing 63.34 percent of total market turnover. Likewise, EQUITY GROUP and EAST AFRICAN BREWERIES recorded at turnover of KES 223.9 million (about 14.46 percent of total market turnover) and KES 168.8 (about 10.91 percent of total market turnover) respectively.  At the same time, foreign buys stood at 82.46 percent of total turnover, while foreign sales stood at 93.21 percent of total turnover

From the market movers’ angle, FLAME TREE emerged the top loser, declining by 4.71 percent to close the day at KES 8.10. It followed by EAST AFRICAN PORTLAND CEMENT and NATIONAL BANK, Kenya plummeted by 3.39 percent (to close at KES 57.00) and 3.17 percent (with closing price of KES 19.85) respectively. Among the losers were SAFARICOM and NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL CREDIT Bank went down by 2.88 percent and 2.80 percent to close the day at KES 15.20 and KES 52.00 in that order. On the gainers’ side were LIBERTY HOLDINGS, STANDARD CHARTERED, CROWN BERGER PAINT, MUMIAS SUGAR and BRITISH AMERICAN INSURANCE Kenya added 3.13 percent at KES 24.75, 2.66 percent at KES309.00, 2.56 percent at KES 160.00, 2.50 percent at KES 2.05and 2.75 percent at KES 22.50 respectively.

On the final note, Kenyan shillings depreciated against major currencies but appreciated against the South African rand. It depreciated by 0.43 percent, 0.22 percent, and 0.25 percent against the US dollar, British pound and Euro respectively.