NOV. 2 2017: BOND MARKET STILL DOWN AT NAIROBI SE

At the Nairobi securities exchange today November 2, 2017, the bond market closed on the low side once again as traded value came to Kes 444.4m in 38 deals.

Yesterday, it had closed almost at the same level with 32 deals being struck for Kes 455.6m worth.

Interestingly, there was a cluster of deals in treasury bonds of below Kes 50m but the government stocks of above Kes 50m that usually accounted for each day's deals, recorded deals in only 6 stocks two were for less than Kes 50,000 worth each.

At the equity segment however, it was more a case of far more price gains (23 in all) than price drops (13) but in spite of this, the All shares index closed down marginally by 0.29% or 0.48 points to 163.48.

Kakuzi ltd, a relatively high priced equity in the agricultural sector, must have helped in no small measure in the ASI drop. This was because it led Kes losers with Kes 6.00 drop as it traded at Kes 324 per share through the day compared to Kes 330 with which it closed November 1.

In sharp contrast, price gainers were paced by Standard Chartered Bank, Nation Media and Standard Group PLC as they gained Kes 2.00 per share each.

There was indeed a cluster of gainers in the banking sector as all the 8 price changed recorded there were gains.

The least of the cluster was HF group's Kes 0.05 per share increase followed by Barclay's bank, up Kes0.10 per share while KCB group followed Standard Chartered Bank's lead gain with Kes 1.75 per share top up.

Other gainers in the sector were Diamond Trust bank (up Kes 1.00 per share); Stanbic, up Kes 0.50; Cooperative bank with Kes 0.30 per share increase and NIC bank which closed Kes 0.25 per share higher.

Traded volume was slightly higher at 37.8m shares, up 1.61% on yesterday's 37.2m but traded value tumbled by 21.8% to Kes 970.1m from yesterday's Kes 1.24bn. However, number of deals struck dropped by 9.46% to 1349.

The most traded equity was Safaricom in which deals were struck for 18.95m units at between Kes 25 and 26 worth Kes 482m. Thus Safaricom accounted for 50.1% of market traded volume but 49.7% of traded value.

The banks contributed 29.88% to traded value (Kes 290m) with KCB group chipping in deals for 3.5m shares at between Kes 40.75 and 43 while Equity group accounted for Kes 126m worth of deals for 3.09m shares; Barclay's bank recorded deals for 729,300 units and Cooperative bank closed the day with deals that changed ownership of 197,000 shares.

Three other equities witnessed above 1m traded volume: Ken Gen and Ken Kobil both of the Energy and petroleum sector had deals for 4.085m and 2.456m shares respectively worth Kes 36.5m and Kes 36.8m. Ken Kobil was traded at between Kes 14.90 and 15.25 per share.

The 3rd equity was Kenya Airways with deals for 1.03m shares .

The manufacturing and allied sector had no above 1m traded volume but East African Breweries 275,200 units exchanged as it gained Kes 1.00 per share for Kes 67m contributed the lion share of the sector's Kes 83m traded value or 8.63% of market total.