MAY 9, 2018: BRITAM MAKES DAY AT NAIROBI SECURITIES EXCHANGE

At the Nairobi Securities Exchange May 9, 2018, Britam Holdings in the Insurance made the day with rare offload that helped shoot traded value beyond Ksh 1bn.

Normally, when the market crossed this mark in the last one year or so, it was due to an offload in Safaricom, or combined activities in the banking sector or more rarely offload in Ken Kobil in the Energy and Petroleum sector.

When it was crossed on January. 19, this year to clock high of Ksh 5.96bn, it was offload of 269.97m shares in Ken  Kobil that dominated the shove which came from total deals from 387.04m shares.

It crossed the mark to reach Ksh 1.37bn also on February 26 on the back of 65.7m shares Ken Kobil offload.

Otherwise, the pace setters in the market daily were Safaricom sometimes hotly trailed by conbined trades in the banking sector.

Now Britam Holdings has placed one foot at this level of pace setting as deals were recorded Wednesday May 9, for 41.13m shares traded between Ksh 13.8 and 15.85 per share worth Ksh 652m.

This was a substantial part of the day's 76.93m traded volume but only a major part of Ksh 1.656bn traded value.

In the end the Ksh 1bn mark was crossed with Safaricom playing 2nd fiddle with deals for 17.88m shares at between Ksh 28.50 and 29.50 per share worth Ksh 521m or 31.43% of total traded value.

But there was something Britam could not be responsible for: 1.37% or 2.45 points recovery in the All share index to 181.18 after two consecutive days downwards.

That came about as the day's 10 gainers included Safaricom which closed up by Ksh 0.75 per share as news of its proposed dividend filtered to the market.

It hit day high of Ksh 29.50, low of Ksh 28.50 then closed at Ksh 29 per share, still up considerably on Tuesday's Ksh 28.25 per share close.

Britam Holdings and Nation Media Group in the commercial did close with Ksh 1 per share gain on the heels  leading Ksh 1.50 per share rise by TPS Eastern Africa.

Top and indeed more like solo dive for the day was recorded as Kakuzi found and closed at Ksh 345 per share as only 300) of its shares changed hands thus losing Ksh 10 per share.

None of the rest price losers declined by up to Ksh 1 per share.

At the bond market, growth continued for the third day as traded value canee to Ksh 2.7bn compared Ksh 2.5bn on Tuesday.