The Nairobi Securities Exchange closed the week on a mixed note weighed down by the fall in prices in some of the major blue-chip counters. The All Share Index dropped marginally by 0.45%% to close the week at 140.24 basis points as against the 140.87 points recorded the previous week. This represented a month’s gain of 6.44% and a Year-to-Date (YTD) returns decline of 15.73%.
The NSE 20 and the NSE25 share indices similarly shed 28.28 points and 21.89 points to close the week at 1847.41 and 3,238.77 points respectively. The NSE 20 share index has shed up-to 30.40% in index value since the year began.
The bourse’s weekly trading turnover closed in positive territory as volume rose to 176 Million as against 92 Million shares transacted in the previous week. The value of shares transacted on the market similarly added gains to Kes 5.0 billion from the 2.4 billion posted last week.
The telecommunications and banking sectors were the most active, accounting for 82.03% and 10.67% of the week’s activity respectively, with Safaricom moving 140 million shares valued at Kes.4.2 billion transacted.
The Financial Sector had exchanged shares worth Kes.549M transacted which accounted for 10.67% of the week’s traded value. Equity Group Holdings shed 2.30% to close the week at Kes.36.15, down from Kes.37.00 registered in at the close of the previous week, with shares worth Kes.284 million transacted. KCB Group unchanged at Kes.37.90 moved 2.4 million shares worth Kes.94 million.
The Derivatives Market of the NSE closed the week on a high note, with September contracts expiring on Thursday, a total of 127 contracts valued at Kes.3.6 million concluded.
The the secondary trading on the bond market saw a decline in activity with bonds valued at Kes.15.5 billion traded as compared to the Kes.21 billion registered the previous week.
Outlook
With an increased foreign demand on the last two days of trading this week. The NSE has shown resilience and the moderate activity in prices is likely to continue with investors playing defensive. Active foreign uptake on the NSE ifs likely to continues
