Stocks plunge as weekly NSE trading plummets 49%

Despite what is being hailed as the best start to a year at the stock market since 2013, trading at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) slumped heavily, with the value of stocks dipping by 54%.

At a volume of 89 million shares valued at Ksh2.9 billion in the week ending February 15, the bourse fell short of the Ksh6.3 billion on 176 million shares posted the previous week.

The 49% decline in stocks could be an indicator that investors preferred to hold rather than sell their shares over the course of the week.

NSE has been experiencing a momentum shift leading to the best start to the stock market since the beginning of 2013, Bloomberg had reported.

Bloomberg said the shift was precipitated by local money managers getting back to buying stocks and in large-enough volumes to outweigh persistent foreign outflows.

Accompanying the 54% value slide of weekly stocks trading was a drop in all indices with the All Share Index slumping 1.96% to settle at 157.29.

The index for the best performing 20 listed firms lost 14.58 points, leaving the NSE 20 Share Index at 3045.40.

At 4003.18 points, the NSE 25 Share Index was down by 1.58%.

On Friday, the biggest gainers were Mumias Sugar, Liberty Kenya Holdings and Eveready East Africa.

Thursday’s highest gainer, Nairobi Business Ventures, was one of Friday’s lowest decliners along with BK Group and EA Breweries.

Despite declining by 4.28% to a share price of Ksh210.25, EA Breweries still managed to rank high in terms of volume of stocks traded at the NSE, with a total of 1.1 million shares.

Kenya Power lit the path with a total of 2.7 million shares, followed by Safaricom who after transacting 1.6 million shares ended the day at a share price of Ksh26.10.

The Bond Market meanwhile was upbeat with bonds worth Ksh16.2 billion transacted compared to Ksh10 billion registered the previous week.

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