NSE futures trading hits Sh452,000 as market turnover rises

The Derivatives Market at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) jumped to Ksh452,560 on July 23, boosted by activity in Safaricom, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and East African Breweries Limited (EABL) single future contracts.

A day earlier, the NSE derivatives market, referred to as NEXT, had posted a total value of Ksh201,220.

Tuesday’s trading saw Safaricom transact 14 contracts for a value of Ksh392,160. EABL and KCB had one contract each, for a value of Ksh20,200 and Ksh42,200 respectively.

The 16 deals are all for contracts set to expire on September 19.

Safaricom’s futures traded at a share price of Ksh28 as against a closing price of Ksh27.25 on the spot market.

KCB registered Ksh40.20 in the derivatives as against Ksh39.85 in the NSE equity market, while EABL’s futures were at Ksh202 as against Ksh191 in the spot market.

At the equity turnover, market value rose to Ksh525 million, against the previous session’s Ksh265 million. The number of shares traded stood at 28.8 million as against the 8.4 million stocks traded on Monday.

Banks were the day’s biggest traders, even though Safaricom ruled the roost as the highest trading firm at the bourse.

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The banking sector had shares worth Ksh299 million, accounting for 56.96% of the day’s traded value.

Barclays Bank actively moved 15.5 million shares valued at Ksh159 million at between Ksh10.25 and Ksh10.40. KCB Group ticked up 5cents to Ksh39.85, in the process moving 2.3 million shares valued at Ksh94 million. Equity Group Holdings moved 920,000 shares worth Ksh37 million and closed at Ksh40.60.

Safaricom on the other hand moved 6.8 million shares valued at Ksh187 million. At between Ksh27.20 and Ksh28, this represented 35.63% of the day’s traded value.

At the indices, all the counters blinked red as follows;

• All Share Index (NASI) shed 1.88 points to stand at 148.04.
• The NSE 20 share Index was down 23.33 points to stand at 2675.31.
• The NSE 25 Share index lost 34.43 points to settle at 3584.55.

The Bond market meanwhile had bonds worth Ksh3.7 billion transacted, jumping from Ksh3 billion previously.

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