Self-listed NSE drops further on closure of register

What you need to know:

“It was essentially flat (on Friday) as the stock was adjusting for dividend and a 1:3 bonus issue following books closure in the previous session,” said Standard Investment Bank in a market summary

The self-listed NSE Ltd’s share dropped a further four per cent yesterday following the closure of books for bonus and dividend issues last week.

The stock closed at Sh19.45 down from Sh20.25, following Friday’s 27 per cent fall in the first trading session after closure of books, as investors factored in the impact of the additional shares.

Shareholders are, however, not anticipating a hit on their wealth since the devaluation of the stock should essentially balance out with the additional shares they are getting.

“It was essentially flat (on Friday) as the stock was adjusting for dividend and a 1:3 bonus issue following books closure in the previous session,” said Standard Investment Bank in a market summary.

During the NSE annual general meeting held last Thursday, shareholders approved both the bonus issue and an increase of authorised share capital from Sh850 million to Sh1.5 billion, with the bourse doing so to meet the regulatory requirements on setting up a derivatives market.

The rest of the market was quiet in yesterday’s trading with most indicators seeing little change.

The benchmark NSE 20 Share Index remained flat at 3801 points, with the number of shares traded also seeing little movement at 24 million from Friday’s 23.4 million.

Equity turnover, however, rose from Sh405.6 million to Sh797.4 million as investors traded more in higher value bank stocks of Equity and KCB compared to Friday when KenolKobil dominated trading.