Foreign investors dominate trading at NSE

By James Anyanzwa

In Friday’s market report we review the performance of the stocks market prior to the Mashujaa Day holiday observed on Thursday.

Foreign investors continued to dominate trading at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) during the Wednesday business session.

According to a market report by the Standard Investment Bank (SIB)’s research department foreign investors participated actively on mobile phone operator Safaricom and the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) counters, while contribution by local investors dwindled, accounting for a paltry 25 per cent of the turnover.

Safaricom eased 1.61 per cent to Sh3.05 and was the main mover for the day at 68.4 per cent of the market.Foreign participation on the Safaricom counter stood at 99 per cent.

Kenya Power rose 0.88 per cent to Sh17.15 after announcing full year (2011) results, showing a 13.6 per cent year-on-year growth in profit after tax to Sh4.22 billion.

Activity on the power utility firm was mainly driven by local investors.

Williamson Tea notched up 8.1 per cent to trade between Sh220-231 on news that the tea company had sold its headquarters office block for approximately Sh500million (the property is valued at Sh275 million in the company’s books.)

EABL witnessed low activity with the brewer easing off 1.32 per cent to Sh150 after details of its disposal of its 20 per cent stake in Tanzania Breweries Limited were announced earlier in the session. The brewer is now down 27.9 per cent.

Oil marketers, KenolKobil and Total Kenya, inched 0.51 per cent and 0.31 per cent lower respectively on thin volumes.

Fixed income securities segment took a downward turn today with securities worth Sh1.65 billion (US$ 16.6million) transacted, off 47 per cent over what was recorded in the previous session.

Index

NSE 20-Share Index was down 0.70 points to close at 3,300.48.

Foreign buys and sales stood at Sh231.8 million (73.36 per cent) and Sh241.6 million (76.47 per cent) respectively.

The day’s main losers included Car&General (-9.09 per cent), ScanGroup Ltd (-3.45 per cent), East African Portland Cement (-2.54 per cent), National Bank of Kenya (-2.22 per cent) and CfC Insurance Holdings Ltd (-2.17 per cent).

Amongst the day’s gainers were Standard Group Ltd (+8.74 per cent), Williamson Tea Kenya (+8.10 per cent), Crown Berger Kenya (+4.85 per cent), Equity Bank (+3.94 per cent).