Nairobi bourse turnover doubles as blue-chips start to announce results

Equity turnover at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) doubled Tuesday to 9.7 million US dollars on a volume of 30 million shares as various blue-chips in the East African nation started to announce quarter one financial results.

Barclays Bank was the day's biggest mover trading 14 million shares at 0.10 dollars as Equity Bank, which announced a profit of 50 million dollars Tuesday coming in second at 3.12 million at 0.40 dollars a share.

Other top counters were Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Safaricom and Mumias Sugar. KCB moved 2.8 mil­lion shares, Safaricom 2.3 million and Mumias Sugar 2.1 million.

East African Breweries Ltd was the foreign investors' favourite, with most of them selling the shares more than buying.

Equity Bank and Kenol Kobil followed second and third respectively as most foreign investors too sold the shares. Safaricom, which is set to announce its full-year profit, mainly attracted foreign buyers.

Despite increased trading, the NSE 20 Share Index went down 46 points or 1.3 percent to close at 3,916.74. The index has been on downward trend for the past one week after crossing below the 4,000 psychological mark.

Analysts have attributed the downward trend to drop and stagnation in prices of various blue-chips that make the 20 Share Index.

The All Share Index (NASI) was down marginally to close at 145.64 while the NSE 25 Share Index closed the day at 4,201.36.

Foreign investor's participation stood at 64 percent as bond turnover went down 70 percent to close at 5.8 million dollars.