Equities turnover at Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) gained marginally this week as key indices rose, signaling better tidings for investors in the coming weeks. 
The turnover surged due to an increase in prices of various stocks, but share supply remained stifled.
Market data from NSE showed that turnover stood at 51 million U. S. dollars this week, up from 48 million dollars in the previous trading session.
“The equity turnover recorded a 3.9 percent increase on account of improved average share prices. Share supply, however, declined by 20 percent,” Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) analysts said in their weekly report.
Kakuzi, an agricultural company, led the list of top gainers with prices rising from 2.9 dollars to 3.1 dollars. Other stocks whose prices increased were Express Kenya and Kenya Power.
Overall, telecommunication and technology, banking, manufacturing and allied sectors were the top three most active sectors, representing 51 percent, 32 percent and 7 percent of the total shares traded.
Of all the indices, only the NSE 20 Share Index declined during the week to 4,784.07, from 4,786.74. The Nairobi All Share Index improved by about 2 percent, rising from 162.13 to 163.78 this week.
Similarly, market capitalization, which measures shareholders wealth, gained to stand at 24 billion dollars, up from 23.6 billion dollars.
“Shareholders wealth gained 399 million dollars or 2 percent during the week,” said the CBK report.
Market capitalization has been on downward trend making investors lose. At the beginning of April, the index stood at 25 billion dollars but plummeted in subsequent weeks, making investors lose about 2 billion dollars at the end of last month.
The decline has been attributed to flight by foreign investors, who in the past weeks have been selling their shares to seek better returns in Nigeria and Egypt stock markets, following drop in share prices and introduction of capital gains tax.
The FTSE NSE Kenya 15 Index and FTSE NSE Kenya 25 Index, which measure stocks performance of 15 largest companies by market capitalization and 25 most liquid stocks at the NSE respectively, closed the week 2.05 and 2.09 percent higher. Enditem
-Xinhua
