The Nairobi Securities Exchange recorded maintained stability during the week, with major blue-chip counters having little downward change in terms of price action in a week when the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics released data, showing that Kenya’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 5.7% in 2Q2020 as compared to the 2Q2019 (+5.3%).
The benchmark All share index of the Nairobi Securities Exchange closed the week modestly lower, shedding 0.42 points to settle at 139.65 points. This represented a 1-week loss of 0.30%, a 4-week loss of 0.42%, and an overall year-to-date loss of 16.08%.
The NSE 20 share index was down 25.41 points or 1.38% to close Friday at 1,811.13 points, similarly, the NSE25 share index shed 12.96 points or 0.36% from last week’s close to stand at 3,212.90. The NSE 20 and the NSE25 share indices have shed up-to 31.77% and 21.65% respectively in year to date performance.
The bourse’s weekly turnover posted a moderate rise for the first time this month, with the turnover gaining by 18.18% to KES 1.3 billion from the 1.3 billion transacted the previous week. Similarly, the volume of shares exchanging hands on the exchange increased by 11.35% to 52.0 million from the 46.7 million posted the previous week.
Safaricom Plc maintained the position of the top trader during the week, with 21.8 million shares valued at Kes.658 million transacted at a fairly stable price of Kes.30.10 per share. This represented 50.11% and 41.92% of the week’s traded value and volumes respectively.
The Banking Sector came in second in activity, with shares worth Kes.423 million transacted which accounted for 32.24% of the week’s traded value. KCB Group Plc shed 2.36% in trading price to Kes.37.20 moving 6.5 million shares valued at Kes.246 million. Equity Group Holdings Plc had 3.6 million shares valued at Kes.126 million transacted at a fairly stable price of Kes.34.95.
East African Breweries Plc turned lower, shedding 1.06% in price action to Kes.163.00 with 324,000 shares worth Kes.54 million exchanging hands. British American Tobacco on the other hand turned positive, adding 1.16% to close the week at Kes.349.00 and 87,000 shares valued at Kes.29.5 million transacted.
The Derivatives Market of the NSE closed the week with a total of 11 contracts valued at Kes.324,000 concluded during this week’s trading session, this was a positive growth from last week’s value of Kes 216,000. Secondary trading on the bond market saw a decline in activity with bonds valued at Kes.12.3 billion billion traded against the Kes 16.2 billion worth of bonds achieved in the previous week.
