Capital Markets

East African Breweries, BAT lose at the bourse

NSE

Nairobi Securities Exchange stock traders. PHOTO/DIANA NGILA

East African Breweries Ltd and BAT bucked the upward trend among big caps Tuesday, both shedding Sh4 in share price as Safaricom dominated trade to account for three quarters of turnover.

The brewer’s share, one of the few with a year-to-date share price gain, has also been experiencing profit taking by investors this month after closing its books at the end of August on a Sh5.50 final dividend for the previous financial year.

Tuesday’s price decline came on the back of news of a law change removing tax incentives on low price beer.

The BAT closed trading at Sh815 a share, which is equivalent to a decline of 0.5 per cent.  Other top five largest counters by market cap— Safaricom, Equity Bank and KCB—fared better.

Safaricom was up one per cent or 20 cents to close at Sh19.70 while Equity gained 2.8 per cent or 75 cents to close at Sh27.50.

KCB was unchanged at Sh25.25, arresting a recent slide that has seen the banking stock fall to a five-year low.

Safaricom, however, dominated trading Tuesday accounting for nearly 90 per cent of the 60.7 million shares traded in the market and 76 per cent of turnover that stood at Sh1.38 billion.

The banking sector, which had dominated the market on Monday by accounting for 67 per cent of turnover, was quieter accounting for just 11 per cent of Tuesday’s turnover and 6.3 per cent of traded shares.

The NSE 20 Share Index gained for the fourth straight session, closing 19 points higher at 3206.