Stocks in Focus: Fall at the NSE Continues for 4th Day Running

The week’s downslide continued for the fourth consecutive day onto Thursday’s trading session with all NSE indicators losing ground.

The Nairobi All Share Index declined by 0.80 percent to 124.75 points; the NSE-20 index lost 1.09 percent to settle at 3014.36 points and the NSE -25 Share Index shed 1.22 percent to close at 3262.53 points.

Equity turnover was down 44.95 percent to 318.74 million shillings from 578.95 million shillings recorded in the previous day. Market Capitalization declined by 0.80 percent to close at 1.81 trillion. Market breadth, an unbiased measure of the market performance, indicated that the bearish market sentiment experienced in the previous trading session continued further, with the number of stocks on a decline, 26, outweighing the number of stocks that gained, 11.

Only the Construction & Allied Sector of the NSE closed in the positive, as a result of a 2.50 percent price gain in the East African Cables Ltd (NSE: CABL) counter which closed at 6.15 shillings. Manufacturing & Allied services sector shed the most, easing 1.59 percent, attributed to 8.70 percent and 5.00 percent share price decline in Mumias Sugar Company Ltd (NSE: MSC) and Flame Tree Group (NSE: FTGH), which closed at 1.05 shillings and 4.75 shillings respectively.

Most actively traded in shares

Safaricom Ltd (NSE: SCOM) dominated trading with a larger than previous participation, accounting for 72.66 percent of the day’s total turnover, closing at 17.95 shillings (- 0.27%). Equity Group (NSE: EQTY) followed with a participation of 9.50% of the total market turnover, ending the day at KES 26.25 (-1.87%) as shown in the table below:

Gaining stocks

Express Kenya (NSE: XPRS) was the top gaining counter, advancing 6.45 percent to close at 3.30 shillings. Sasini Tea (NSE: SASN) came second, adding 2.83 percent to close at 20.00 shillings as shown in the table below:

Losing Stocks

Eaagads Ltd (NSE: EGAD), was the top loser for a second day in succession, shedding 9.09 percent to close at 24.75 shillings, followed closely by Mumias Sugar (NSE: MSC), which erased 8.70 percent to end the day at 1.05 shillings as shown in the table below: