Britam Holdings edges out Safaricom to top on the Nairobi bourse

By Amina Faki

Britam Holding’s share on Wednesday accounted for 70 percent of the day’s activity on the Nairobi bourse.

The firm’s shares stood at Sh1.6 billion at the close of trading at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) at a price of Ksh15.80 per share.

This was attributed to local investors who came back strongly, edging out foreigners who maintained their previous level activity.  

Foreign investors assumed a net selling position by accounting for 26.5 percent of total market sales and 22.5 percent of total market purchases due to the large trade on Britam Holdings Limited.

Even with the odds of trade, foreign investors dominated the market at 80 percent. Foreign investors exited Equity Group Ltd (NSE: EQTY) for the first time in the last 15 sessions.

The benchmarks continued their uptrend, all closing higher for the second subsequent session.

Safaricom Ltd (NSE: SCOM) and East African Breweries Ltd (NSE: EABL) lost their dominance to Britam Holding Plc.

Bond turnover closed at KES. 2.43Bn, 28.8% lower from the previous session, on 151 deals compared to 63 (previously) with the NSE 20 and NASI indices gaining 0.89 percent and 0.24 percent to close at 3,632.82 million shillings and 152.56 shillings respectively.

On the other hand, the Kenya shilling weakened against three major currencies, the dollar, the pound and the euro by 1.49 percent, 6.77 percent and 10.79 percent on year-to-date basis respectively.