The trading session at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), concluded in a mixed performance on Tuesday 20th January 2026. The session registered modest gains in its benchmark indices amid a significant contraction in trading activity. Despite the marginal index gains, overall trading activity weakened substantially. Equity turnover plummeted by 39.2% to KES 331.52 million, down from KES 545.31 million in the prior session.
The day’s performance was distinctly split between gainers and losers. Leading the top gainers was the ABSA New Gold ETF, which posted a remarkable surge of 74.4% to close at KES 5,685.00. It was followed byKenya Airways, BK Group Plc and Nation Media Group, which rose by 9.0%, 5.1% and 2.8%, respectively. Conversely, the top losers were led by Eveready Plc, which declined by 4.6% to KES 1.25. East African Portland Cement, Williamson Tea Kenya, Kenya Power, and Sanlam Kenya also recorded losses of 3.8%, 3.4%, 2.7% and 2.3%, respectively. Among large caps, Kenya Power & Lighting led the declines with a 2.7% drop, followed by Equity Group and I&M Group, each falling by 0.7%.
NSE Indices Performance
The Nairobi All-Share Index (NASI) edged upward by 0.1%, closing at 193.84 points. This upward momentum was supported by positive movements in key large cap stocks such as Jubilee Holdings, KCB Group, British American Tobacco, and Safaricom, which recorded gains of 0.8%, 0.4%, 0.3%, and 0.2%, respectively. This in turn contributed to a slight 0.1% increase in the overall market capitalization, which rose to KES 3,059.09 billion. The NSE 20 and the Banking Sector Index, posted gains of 0.1% and 0.0% respectively.
Equity Group emerged as the day’s most traded stock, with a turnover of KES 95.83 million, followed closely by Safaricom at KES 78.40 million, with the two counters closing at KES 69.00 and KES 27.00, respectively.
In the fixed income segment, the NSE secondary bond market demonstrated notable strength, with turnover surging by 39.8% to KES 21.6 billion from KES 15.49 billion. The IFB1/2018/15Yr bond was the standout security, being both the highest-return and most frequently traded bond of the day. Conversely, the derivatives market experienced a sharp pullback. The total volume of contracts traded collapsed to 220 from 1,386, and the value of traded contracts fell to 657,025 from 2,375,465. Meanwhile, the number of open interest contracts saw a slight increase of 1.4% to 7,040 from 6,940.
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