Equity market in mixed performance

Kenyan banking shares and those of East African Breweries Ltd (EABL) fell on Thursday, ending five days of gains on the bourse. Shares in EABL, the region’s biggest brewer, fell 1.3 per cent to Sh309 on profit-taking before the release of its full-year results, traders said.

KCB Bank Group, the largest bank in Kenya by assets, fell 0.52 per cent to Sh55.00, largely because the value of the stock was diluted when additional shares were listed under the company’s Employee Share Ownership Programme.

“KCB traded very actively during today’s session,” said Kuria Kamau, a research analyst at Kestrel Capital. “There were new shares that were being credited. Those are the ESOP shares coming into the market and as a result there is some dilution.”

On the foreign exchange market, the shilling closed at Sh87.85/95 to the dollar, unchanged for Wednesday’s close. Central Bank has been injecting local currency into the market to ease tight liquidity leading to rising interbank lending rates.

Traders have said the cash crunch in the money market was caused by delays in the government disbursing funds to departments and local authorities. The Central Bank was injecting too little to bring down the rates, some traders said.