Kenya's bourse turnover triples as foreign investors buy Safaricom

Equity turnover at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) more than tripled Thursday to 26 million U.S. dollars from 42 million shares, with Kenya's leading telecom Safaricom trading half of the shares.

Some 29 million shares valued at 7.8 million dollars had been traded at the bourse in the previous session.

Safaricom share sustained upward surge, going up by 2 percent Thursday to stand slightly above 0.18 U.S. dollars as it attracted more foreign inflows.

Thursday's gain saw the share to cumulatively increase by 4.3 percent in two days, a feat not seen with other stocks at the bourse, majority whose prices are going down.

The company traded 21 million shares, a new high, up from 18 million Wednesday to remain the top mover at the NSE.

Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group was the second top mover with 4.3 million shares, most of which were foreign sales. KCB Group share has dropped to a low of 0.36 dollars, down from 0.40 dollars in April.

Cooperative Bank claimed the third spot with 3.2 million shares after going up marginally by 0.3 percent to 0.17 dollars. The share has also been on a losing streak, falling from 0.20 dollars weeks ago.

East African Breweries Ltd (EABL), which traded 2.6 million shares at 3 dollars, closed the day's top five movers, coming after Kengen with 2.7 million shares.

EABL attracted foreign investors' interest, but unlike Safaricom, there were as much foreign buys and sales for the share.

The improved trading saw the NSE 20 Share Index close the day at 3,818.19, up from 3,798.26 Wednesday, while the All Share Index ended at 146.39, from 145.43 and the NSE 25 Share Index was up to 4,139.49, from 4,120.23

source : xinhua