Kenya Airways Trims Direct Operating Costs by 17 Percent

Positive performance was evident across most of the listed counters in the large cap segment driven by heavy foreign participation. The NSE-20 share index lost ground by 0.06% to close at 3916.62 points while the NSE All Share Index bucked the trend, advancing by 0.47% to close at 143.79 points. Equity turnover and market capitalization posted a similar trend with the former gaining 25.72% to close at KES 0.395 billion and the latter garnering 0.47% to close at KES 2.023 trillion.

Market breadth, showed a flat performance as the number of stocks that declined -17 outweighed the number of stocks that advanced -15.

National carrier, Kenya Airways (NSE: KQ) announced their half year results for the year ended 30th September 2015 with flat performance posted on the turnover (KES 56.7 billion). The airline offered to the market a capacity of 7,538 million measured in available seat kilometres (ASK) representing a y/y reduction of 7.9% as part of the strategy to tighten capacity.

Commendably, the airline trimmed down their direct operating costs by 17% to KES 34.79 billion as part of their restructuring plan and cost containment. A decline in the operating loss didn’t however result in an improvement on the bottom line.

Equity Market Highlights

Safaricom Ltd (NSE: SCOM) was the most actively traded stock accounting for 31.73% of the total market value traded activity. Kenya Commercial Bank Ltd (NSE:KCB) closed in second position, accounting for 22.59% of the days traded value.

NIC Bank Ltd (NSE: NIC) capped the gainers list for the day propping up by 4.88% to close the day at KES 43.00, ahead of their Q3 results announcement. Atlas Development & Support Services Ltd (NSE: ADSS) retained the second position appreciating by 4.41%, to close at KES 3.55.

Trans-Century Ltd (NSE: TCL) led the losers pack declining by 9.47% to close at KES 11.00. Home Afrika Ltd (NSE: HAFR) lagged behind, slumping by 7.14% to close at KES 1.30.