Shares rise on foreign investors return, shilling steady
An investor on the Nairobi Securities Exchange trading floor. Return of foreigners has boosted trading at the bourse. Photo/FILE
What you need to know:
Equity turnover at the bourse doubled to Sh547 million Tuesday from Monday’s Sh277 million.
The shilling meanwhile was stable against the dollar for the second straight day, making a slight gain on the US currency in commercial banks trading.
Investors made a robust return to the stock market on Tuesday following the quiet opening to the week in the wake of the Westgate mall terrorist attack.
Equity turnover at the bourse doubled to Sh547 million Tuesday from Monday’s Sh277 million, although the indicative NSE 20 share index shed 10 points to close the day at 4729 points.
“Overall, foreign investors accounted for 73 per cent of trades compared to 58 per cent in the previous session,” said Standard Investment Bank in their daily market report.
Safaricom dominated trading at the market with the 31 million shares traded representing 82 per cent of the days traded volume, up from 9 million shares traded on Monday.
The counter, whose days traded volume was boosted by a block trade in its shares, however shed 10 cents to close the day at Sh8.25 per share on some profit taking.
On the other hand, East African Breweries Limited extended its recent gains climbing one per cent to Sh307 also on strong foreign investor demand.
After touching a twelve-month high on Monday, Total witnessed profit taking on Tuesday easing 4.6 per cent to Sh17.60.
Stable shilling
The shilling meanwhile was stable against the dollar for the second straight day, making a slight gain on the US currency in commercial banks trading.
Commercial banks quoted the shilling at an average opening rate of 87.35/75 to the dollar, and closed at 87.40/50.
Central Bank in its mean indicative rates had the local currency at 87.46 to the dollar, marginally down on Monday’s mean quoted rate of 87.41 to the greenback.
“Demand for dollars is still low in spite of the approaching end month, with most of the dollar buyers having made higher purchases at the beginning of the month,” said Bank of Africa head of trading Peter Mutuku.
He added that going forward the shilling is likely to continue with the marginal gains against the dollar, given that the market is quite liquid.
