Turnover at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) declined sharply with foreign investors, who have been the key drivers of its daily activities lately, keeping off most counters-except for Safaricom and the East African Breweries Limited (EABL).
While Thursday’s turnover rose significantly to over Ksh1.4 billion, Friday’s figure climbed down significantly to Ksh502.46 million. A total of 20.09 million shares were traded in 869 deals on Friday.
Crown Paints Kenya was the top gainer with a single deal pushing up its share price 9.28% to close at Ksh46.50 from the previous Ksh42.55. This was from a volume of 1,200 shares traded in the deal that resulted in a turnover of Ksh55,800.
Increased activity on Crown Paints follows its recent unveiling of an aggressive expansion strategy. The paint maker plans to splash Ksh10 million to spruce up its Mombasa showrooms as it eyes opportunities at the coast. Crown Paints also plans to open outlets in all the 47 counties over the next two years.
There was also intense speculative activity on Home Afrika, CIC and Uchumi Supermarkets, whose share prices rose 4.76%, 3,50% and 3.45% to 44 cents, KSh 2.07 and 30 cents respectively.
Limuru Tea was also one of the top gainers with its highly-priced stock rising 3.90% to close the day at Ksh400.
The worst-performing stocks including Nairobi Business Ventures, which fell 9.09% to trade at 60 cents, Olympia Capital Holdings which declined 8.26% to Ksh 2.11, East African Cables which was down 5.56% to Ksh1.53, while Longhorn Publishers shed its price by 2.25% to Ksh4.77 and Housing Finance declined 2.20% to Ksh4.01.
The week’s prime mover was Safaricom which sold 12.09 million shares at a price of Ksh 30.05 from the previous Ksh 30, with 82.90% of activities on this counter dominated by foreign investors.
Apart from Safaricom and EABL, foreign investors kept off most of the counters, pulling down the market’s turnover to Ksh502.5 million compared to Ksh1.44 billion at the end of Thursday’s trading session.
Other heavy hitters at the bourse included KPLC which moved a total of 1.86 million shares at the price of Ksh1.80 from the previous Ksh1.79. This resulted in a turnover of Ksh3.33 million in 72 deals.
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KCB moved a volume of 1.47 Million shares followed by ABSA (I.31 million) and Equity Bank (691,500), at a price of Ksh38.90, Ksh10, and Ksh36.10 respectively.
All indices were up with the NSE All-Share increasing marginally by 0.66 points to 140.37 while the NSE 20 settled at 1,847.63, an increase of 15.63 points from the previous 1,832.00. The NSE 25 edged 20.59 points from 3221.79 to 3242.38 at the close of trading Friday.
With NSE market capitalization at Ksh2.11 trillion, 42 listed equities participated in trading, ending with 21 gainers and 12 losers.
The derivatives market recorded an increase in activity with nine contracts valued at Ksh290,250 compared to four contracts valued at Ksh126,000 concluded this Thursday. In the secondary bond market, bonds worth Ksh2.49 billion were transacted in 79 deals. This is compared to Ksh1.69 billion achieved in 63 deals posted Thursday.
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