OCT 11, 2017: BAT, EAB PROVIDE BEEF AT NAIROBI SE.

Today October 11, 2017 British American Tobacco (BAT) and East African Breweries (EAB) both of the manufacturing and allied sector, beefed up traded value at the Nairobi securities exchange partly as BAT also paced price gains.

Traded value at the market had jumped by 279.9% to Kes 809.2m from yesterday's lowly Kes 212.99m and the manufacturing and allied sector was responsible for 37.24% of that; ahead of Safaricom's 33.3% and the banking sector's 18.18%.

Traded volume too more than doubled to 20.04m shares but none of EAB and BAT had any major hand in that.

BAT firstly, led 9 price gainers with Kes 9.00 per share gain. It hit day high of Kes 810 per share, then a low of Kes 800 before settling at Kes 809 per share.

Through this up and down, deals for 230,000 units were struck at between Kes 800 and 810 per share worth Kes 187m.

On its part, EAB eased by Kes 1.00 per share and witnessed deals for 461,100 shares worth Kes 112m and so together, both of them accounted for almost every Kes of the leading Kes 300m traded in the manufacturing and allied sector.

The BAT gain was exceptional though for the day as 26 price drops pointed more to a market running rather scared of prospects, perhaps because the political situation in Kenya is still far from being under control.

Besides, price drops were recorded in virtually every sector more though in the Energy and Petroleum sector where 5 out of 7 quoted equities ended down; in the banking sector where six also lost grounds and in the Agriculture sector as heavy Kes drops were the rule of sorts.

Kakuzi ltd led Kes drops as it hit day high and close of Kes 323 per share which represented shedding of Kes 22.0 when compared to Kes 345 per share yesterday.

In the same sector, Williamson Tea went down by Kes 14.0 per share as it hit new all year low and day close of Kes 150 per share after Kes 160 thus down considerably on the Kes 164 with which it ended yesterday. It also witnessed deals for 152,000 units.

With trailing decline by others like I &M Holdings (down Kes 4.00 per share); Diamond Trust bank ( down Kes 2.00 per share) and Jubilee Holdings with Kes 1.00, the drop in the All shares index by 1.07 points or 0.67% to 159.78 was inevitable especially as heavyweight like Safaricom closed firm.

Traded volume was beefed up by Safaricom with deals for 10.73m shares at between Kes 24.75 and 25.25 per share though closing firm at Kes 25; ARM Cement with deals for 3.032m shares worth Kes 39m at between Kes 12.75 and 13.30 per share, and as 2.10m shares changed hands in Equity group at between Kes 35.25 and 37 worth Kes 72m.

Traded value at the bond market was still low but at Kes 1.1bn it came to slight improvement on yesterday's Kes 775m.