The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) closed today’s session in negative territory, with the Nairobi All Share Index (NASI) edging lower amid heightened trading activity.
The NASI slipped by 0.1% to 205.73 points from 205.87 points recorded in the previous session. The downturn was mainly driven by losses in large-cap stocks such as Standard Chartered Bank Kenya, Jubilee Holdings, Safaricom Plc, and NCBA Group, which declined by 1.9%, 0.7%, 0.3%, and 0.3%, respectively.
Conversely, the NSE 10 and NSE 20 indices advanced by 0.2% to close at 2,149.05 points and 3,491.16 points, respectively. The NSE 25 rose marginally by 0.1% to 5,645.63 points, while the Banking Sector Index edged higher by 0.2% to 232.40 points.
Trading activity gained momentum, with the volume of shares traded surging by 123% to 26.42 million shares, generating an equity turnover of KES 890.6 million. Market capitalization stood at KES 3.41 trillion, down 0.1% from the preceding session.
NSE Top Gainers and Losers
Rwanda-based lender BK Group PLC led the gainers after rising by 5.6%. Other notable gainers included Home Afrika, Sanlam Kenya, Olympia Capital Holdings, and WPP ScanGroup, which gained 4.8%, 4.4%, 4.2%, and 3.9%, respectively.
On the losers’ side, East African Portland Cement shed the most after declining by 8.2%. Sameer Africa fell by 6.4%, while Longhorn Publishers declined by 4.0%. Britam Holdings lost 3.2%, while Umeme rounded out the top losers after shedding 3.0%.
Foreign Investors
Foreign investors turned net buyers, recording net inflows of KES 276.8 million compared to net outflows of KES 3.74 million in the previous session.
Fixed Income and Derivatives
The fixed income segment lost momentum, with bond turnover declining by 34.3% to KES 7.60 billion. The FXD1/2018/10Yr was the highest-grossing bond, while the IFBI/2022/19Yr was the most actively traded bond of the day.
Meanwhile, activity in the derivatives market weakened, with the total volume of contracts traded declining to 1,250 from 1,610 in the prior session. Similarly, the value of traded contracts fell to KES 8.1 billion.
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