All Market Indicators Close on Red Territory

KenGen Shareholders Approves Rights Issue

On Thursday’s trading session, the bourse closed on a bleak state with all the market indicators closing on the red territory. The NSE All Share Index plunged by 0.53% to perch at 145.31 points. The NSE 20 share index followed suit declining by 0.16% to close at 4005.22 points whilst the NSE 25- Share Index similarly lost ground by 0.90% to close at 4160.69 points. Market capitalization and equity turnover tumbled with the former declining by 0.53% to close at KES 2,044.15 Billion while the latter contracted by 67.55% to close at KES 0.612 Billion. Market breadth bucked the trend, with the advancers-25 outweighing the decliners-14, resulting in an A/D ratio of 1.79x.

Following shareholders’ approval of the rights issue, power generating firm KenGen (NSE: KEGN) is now awaiting the approval from the CMA and NSE to issue up to 7.8 billion ordinary shares to its existing owners in its upcoming KES 28Bn rights issue slated for 2016. Treasury, which owns 70% of the power generating firm, is set to benefit from this arrangement as it’s expected to write off part the debt lent to the power provider in exchange for the company stock. The proceeds will be used to fund geothermal projects as the company is targeting the installation of an additional 766 Megawatts (MW) by the year 2020. The share price however bucked the news, declining by 7.74% to close at KES 7.15.

Equity Market Highlights

East African Breweries Ltd (NSE: EABL) was the most actively traded stock accounting for 51.74% of the total market activity. Safaricom Ltd (NSE: SCOM) closed in second, accounting for 29.49% of the days traded value. B.O.C Kenya Ltd (NSE: BOC) capped the gainers chart, appreciating by 10.00% to close the day at KES 110.00.

Home Afrika Ltd (NSE: HAFR) surged by 9.68%, to close the day as the second best gainer at KES 1.70. KenGen Company Ltd (NSE: KEGN) was the top loser of the day, plummeting by 7.74% to close the day at KES 7.15. Eaagads Ltd (NSE: EGAD) straggled behind, waning by 6.67% to KES 21.00.