Kenyan banks led most of the activity at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE), which rallied at the opening of the week despite fears of political instability following a grenade attack at a rally to oppose a draft constitution.
With the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) set to unveil the commencement of its rights issue and the Jubilee Insurance announcing plans for bonus payouts, the finance segment of the NSE saw an upsurge in activity despite the downcast over Sunday’s grenade attacks.
The grenade attack killed six people and scores were injured in the ensuing stampede.
The Bourse opened the week with a total of 15 million shares valued at Ksh.404 million traded, up from Ksh.346 million.
The volume of shares traded Monday was above the 13 million shares posted last Friday.
The NSE 20 share Index was up 0.61% to stand at 4298.84 points, while the NSE All Share Index (NASI) was up 0.34 points to settle at 93.52.
The financial markets dominated activity at the opening of the bourse, accounting for more than half of the 15 million shares traded on Monday.
The financials counter moved 8 million shares, representing 51.44 per cent of the day’s traded volumes.
Equity Bank was the most heavily traded counter in this sector, with 4.3 million shares changing hands at between Kshs.23.75 and Kshs.24.25.
Barclays Bank fluctuated at between Kshs.60.00 and Kshs.61.00 on a volume of 577,000 shares. KCB moved 1.5M shares and closed at shs.20.75.
The financial markets regulator, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), gave the KCB the green-light to proceed with its plan to raise US$182.5 million from the capital markets.
The Bank will unveil the date of the issue and the price of a share, which would raise its issued shares at the NSE to 1.1 billion shares. Kenyan government, which owned majority stakes in the Bank, has consistently reduced its shares through rights issues.
Kenya’s agricultural sector accounted for less than one per cent of the shares traded Monday. The sector accounted for 0.52 percent traded, with tea firm, Sasini Ltd, moving 81,000 shares at between Kshs.14.45 and Kshs.14.70, the NSE said.
The commercial and services sector moved 4.6 million shares, which accounted for 29.53 percent of the days traded volume.
Vehicle assemblies firm, CMC Holdings, was up five cents to Kshs.13.75 moved 133,000 shares, and Mobile phone firm Safaricom was unchanged at Kshs. 5.55, moving 3.7 million shares.
The industrial and allied sector of the economy moved 2.8 million shares, which accounted for 18.45 percent of the days traded volume.
Sugar miller, Mumias Sugar moved 1.3 million shares and closed at Kshs.12.95. Beer brewer, the East African (EA) Breweries actively moved 491,000 shares at between Kshs.176.00 and Kshs.180.00.
