NSE turnover plummets Sh295 million following technical hitch

Despite an extension of trading hours at the Naironi Securities Exchange on April 1, a technical hitch saw trading fall to Ksh369 million having posted a turnover of Ksh664 million on Friday.

With trading having halted on Monday due to connectivity issues between the bourse and the Central Depository System (CDS), the NSE saw trading hours extended once the system fault was resolved.

“The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) wishes to notify market participants, investors and the general public that trading services have been successfully restored. Following this, trading hours have been extended to 5:00 p.m,” the bourse said on the afternoon of April 1.

In the end, the extension was not enough to see the turnover plunge as well as the stocks decline, as volume of shares traded fell from 18.6 million to 11.4 million shares.

A total of 437 equity deals were transacted on April 1, falling from 1,082 deals on April 29.

The decline in turnover, volume and deals was however contrasted with a spike at the indices counter.

• The NSE 20 share Index was up 3.24 points to stand at 2849.59.
• All Share Index (NASI) picked up 1.35 points to settle at 159.01.
• The NSE 25 Share index added 40.35 points to settle at 3976.34.

NSE Gainers and Decliners

Real estate investment trust Stanlab Fahari I-Reit was the day’s top gainer, jumping 8.23% at a share price of Ksh10.

Uchumi Supermarkets and Home Afrika saw a 7.14% and 5.26% increase respectively in stock trading, while Sasini Tea and Equity had a 4.38% and 3.37% spike respectively.

On the decliners tab, Kenya Orchards sunk 10% at a share price of Ksh12.60.

Publishers Longhorn Kenya dropped 5.36%, Crown Paints Kenya coloured 3.86% red, while Standard Chartered and Mumias Sugar lost 2.44% and 1.96% respectively.

In terms of volumes, regular top volume mover Safaricom had April Fool’s day’s biggest activity transacting 8.4 million shares.

Equity Group moved 1.8 million, with KCB Group at 696,000.

Further behind in terms of volumes were Mumias Sugar and Kengen, who moved 90,600 and 60,000 shares respectively.

[See Also: Artcaffé expands its network with new branch in Nairobi]