Trading at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), slowed down on Friday November 14, with the total value of shares traded dropping to KES 479.03 million, a sharp 43.5% decrease from the 849.03 million recorded in the previous session. Despite this major drop-in activity, the overall market sentiment was slightly positive.
Individual stock performance was a mixed outlook. On the winning side, Uchumi Supermarkets led the gainers with a strong 9.15% increase in its share price to KES 0.48. It was closely followed by the manufacturing company Africa Mega Agricorp Plc, which saw a 6.1% gain to close at KES 69.25. On the losing end, ABSA New Gold ETF was the biggest loser, falling by 8.2% to close at KES 4,765.00. The Flame Tree Group also had a difficult day, losing 4.9% of its value to close the trading session at KES 1.55.
NSE Equites Performance
The market sentiment saw a moderate uptick from the day’s trading session which was underpinned by a 0.05% gain by Nairobi All Share Index (NASI) which closed at 187.43 points. The positive trend was consistent, including the NSE 10, NSE 20 and NSE 25, which recorded gains of 0.23%, 0.14% and 0.12% to 1,947.68 points, 3,178.96 points, and 5,053.04 points, respectively. The banking sector index also rose slightly by 0.15% to 203.61 points.
The banking sector performance was driven by gains in specific banks like Absa Bank, HF Group, BK Group and Diamond Trust Bank at 3.3%, 1.95%, 1.55% and 0.65% to KES 25.00, KES 10.45, KES 42.55, and KES 116.00, respectively. However, these gains were partially offset by losses in other major banks, including Equity Group, Co-operative Bank, NCBA Group and I&M Group, which shed 0.78%, 0.4%, 0.3% and 0.3% to KES 64.00, KES 24.80, KES 83.00, and KES 45.75, respectively.
NSE Volume Traded and Turnover
In terms of the most actively traded companies, Co-operative Bank was at the fore front, with shares worth KES 112.38 million being traded. It was followed by KenGen Plc, which saw a turnover of KES 74.16 million. Meanwhile, in the derivatives market, which deals with futures and options contacts, there was a slight increase in the number of open interest contracts. Even though more contracts were being held, the actual volume and value of contracts traded traded during the day decreased.
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