EABL takes crown of most sought-after stock

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) was a beehive of activity in 2012 driven by a voracious demand for cherry stocks from investors.

Turnover in 2012 increased to Sh86 billion from Sh77 billion a year earlier, an 11.28 per cent increase while the NSE 20-Share index increased to 4,133.02 points from 3,205.02 points posted in 2011 representing a 28.95 per cent increase.

East African Breweries Limited (EABL) recorded the highest turnover at Sh18.56 billion on 790 million shares traded.

Other top stocks were KCB, Equity Bank,Safaricom, British American Tobacco-Kenya, which saw double digit share price appreciation in addition to a high turnover on their stocks.

At the bottom of the list car dealer CMC joined Hutchings Biemer, A. Baumann and Kenya Orchards as shares that did not trade in the year. The CMC stock was suspended from trading after a boardroom war that destabilised operations at the company.

Ugandan utility provider Umeme also joined the NSE this year but the lack of a seamless trading platform between the Nairobi bourse and the Uganda Securities Exchange has seen no shares of the company traded so far.

Foreign investor demand drove turnover to Sh86 billion and 11.28 per cent increase from 2011’s Sh77 billion.