I&M Bank Suspends E-Commerce Transactions

The bourse closed on Wednesday’s trading depicting mixed reactions on the market indicators. The NSE-20 share index gained marginally by 0.18% to close at 4071.56 points whilst the new index, NSE-25 share index, surged by 0.04% to close at 4191.63 points. The NSE All Share index bucked the trend declining by 0.16% to close at 142.70 points. Investor’s wealth similarly shrank by 0.16% to perch at KES 2,007.31 billion whilst equity turnover closed on the green, advancing significantly by 1596.43% to close at KES 1.73 billion. The advancers outweighed the decliners resulting in an A/D ratio of 1.05x.

I&M Bank (NSE: I&M) has suspended debit and credit card backed e-commerce transactions. This move comes at a time when Kenyan Banks drifted their customers last year from the Magnetic strip to the more secure chip- and- pin technology cards after fraudsters were on the rise. The bank cited that there was enormous upsurge in online fraud expediting the cards stoppage. I&M Bank was granted an e-commerce acquiring license by Visa International and MasterCard, giving it a competitive edge over other banks as it was first bank in the region offering the service. The payment platform enabled online card payments to all Kenyan businesses that subscribed to the services.

Equity Market Highlights

Equity Group Holdings Ltd (NSE: EQTY) was the most actively traded stock accounting for 32.88% of the total market activity on account of heightened foreign activity on the stock. Kenya Commercial Bank Ltd (NSE:KCB) closed in second, accounting for 29.64% of the days traded value.

Sasini Ltd (NSE: SASN) topped the gainers list with a price appreciation of 6.67% to close the day at KES 16.00. Williamson Tea Ltd (NSE: WTK) scaled up 6.02%, to close the day as the second best gainer at KES 370.00.

British American Tobacco Ltd (NSE: BAT) was the top laggard of the day, trimming down by 5.13% to KES 758.00. Sameer Africa Ltd (NSE: FIRE) straggled behind, narrowing by 4.88% to KES 3.90.