The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) concluded the 20th week in negative territory with all key performance indicators recording declines.
The benchmark, the Nairobi All Share Index (NASI) declined by 1.9% to close at 205.6 points. The downturn was mainly driven by losses in large cap stocks such as BAT, Safaricom PLC, and East African Breweries Limited (EABL), which declined by 9.8%, 6.7%, and 0.8%, respectively.
The NSE 20 and NSE 25 indices decreased by 0.2% and 0.3% to close at 3,524.70 points and 5,684.09 points respectively. The NSE 10 fell by 0.1% to 2,145.27 points, while the Banking Sector Index dropped by 2.1% to 236.85 points.
However, the market was partly supported by gains recorded by market heavy weights such as co-operative Bank, Standard Chartered and Absa Bank, which gained, 10.5%, 2.9% and 2.3%, respectively.
Trading activity was subdued, with the volume of shares traded falling sharply by 17.1% to 93.6 million shares from 112.9 million shares in the preceding week. Similarly, equity turnover declined by 29.1% to KES 3.1 billion, from KES 4.4 billion in the previous week.
NSE Top Gainers
Flame Tree Group topped the gainers chart after advancing by 13.8%, followed by Co-operative Bank of Kenya, which rose by 10.5%. Standard Group edged higher by 5.8%, while Longhorn Publishers nudged upwards by 4.5%. Sasini Plc rounded out the top gainers after rising by 4.0%.
NSE Top Losers
On the downside, Cigarette manufacturer BAT Kenya, shed the most, falling by 9.8%. Other notable decliners included TPS EA Serena (-8.2%), Safaricom Plc (-6.7%), Limuru Tea (-5.3%), and KPLC (-5.0%).
Equity Group Holdings dominated the market, accounting for 26.8% of the market’s total turnover. Other actively traded counters included Safaricom Plc, EABL, KPC, and Co-op Bank Kenya. The counters recorded turnovers of KES 486.4 million, KES 229.6 million, KES 229.6 million, and KES 157.2 million, respectively.
Foreign Investors
Foreign investors remained bearish, posting a net outflow of KES 371.8 million compared to a net outflow of KES 751.2 million in the previous week. Foreign investor turnover accounted for KES 1.4 billion, representing 45.1% of the total market activity.
Fixed Income
The fixed income segment picked up, with bond turnover rising by 84.2% to KES 41.0 billion, from KES 22.3 billion in the previous week. Meanwhile, the Bond Index closed the week at 1,163.00 points, down 1.0% from 1,174.19 points in the prior week.
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