The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) extended its bullish run from the previous session in today’s trading session, recording modest gains across its indices despite a decline in activity.
The volume of shares traded plunged 64% to 9.34 million shares from 25.92 million in the previous session. Similarly, equity turnover slumped 64% to KES 353.95 million from KES 959.87 million in the prior session. Market capitalization inched up 0.5% to KES 3.05 trillion.
Out of the 55 stocks that participated in trading, 17 recorded gains, while 26 posted losses. Standard Group led the gainers, soaring by 9.4% or KES 0.54 to close at KES 6.28. Other gainers included Satrix MSCI ETF (6.9%), East African Portland Cement (5.9%), Car and General (3.5%), and Nairobi Business Ventures (2.2%).
On the losers’ end, manufacturing firm Unga Group shed the most, losing KES 1.00 to close at KES 22.90. Other notable losers included, Nation Media Group (-3.9%), Africa Mega Agricorp (-2.8%), Jubilee Holdings (-2.7%), and Flame Tree Group (-2.2%).
KCB Group dominated trading, with its average turnover clocking KES 80.71 million. The counter also emerged as foreigners top buy and sell at KES 44.6 million and KES 64.5 million, respectively.
NSE Indices
The Nairobi All Share Index (NASI) rose by 0.5%, settling at 193.87 points, underpinned by gains broad based-gains in large-cap stocks including Safaricom Plc, KCB Group, Absa Bank Kenya, and Co-operative Bank, which gained 1.4%, 0.4%, 0.4%, and 0.2%, respectively. The index has gained 3.91% on year-to-date.
The NSE-10 and NSE-20 indices gained 0.3% and 0.1%, to close at 2,036.89 points and 3,255.56 points, respectively. The NSE-25 index settled at 5,238.11 points, up 0.2%, while the Banking Sector index rose 0.1% to 213.40 points.
Derivatives
The total volume of contracts traded increased to 300 from 240 recorded in the previous session. Similarly, the value of contracts traded increased to KES 1.35 million from KES 623,300. The number of open interest contracts fell by 3.7% to 7,873.
