Large stocks fall pushing down Nairobi bourse

ome 16 million shares valued at 3 million U.S. dollars were traded at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) Monday, down from 20 million worth 3.8 million dollars as prices of most large stocks declined.

Safaricom, Equity Bank, Athi River Mining (ARM) and Cooperative Bank led the list of top stocks whose prices plummeted by between 0.2 and 5 percent.

On the other hand, Kengen, BAT Kenya, Kenya Power and Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) were some of the stocks whose prices remained flat.

Only four stocks that make up the NSE 20 Share Index went up, led by Kenya Airways and Britam. Safaricom, Kenya's leading telecom, was the day's biggest mover with 9.6 million shares traded at 0.17 dollars.

KCB, on the other hand, was the day's second best trader with 1.72 million shares valued traded at 0.24 dollars while ARM came in third with 1.7 million shares at a declined price of 0.19 dollars.

Kenya Power and Home Afrika closed the list of best traded stocks Monday, but did not post more than a million shares.

The NSE 20 Share Index went down 3.42 points to stand at 2,945.33 while the All Share Index (NASI) shed 0.27 points to settle at 124.66 and the NSE 25 Share Index dropped 12.75 points to stand at 3236.52.

Trading at the bond market too declined, with securities worth 1 million dollars transacted, down from 4.9 million dollars in the previous session.

Source: Xinhua