Nairobi Securities Exchange Dominated by Big Firms

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) market closed on Friday, October 27, 2023, announced a total share traded of seventy-nine million.

This is an improvement in the shares traded by the securities exchange of over sixty-eight million.

Additionally, the securities exchange saw an equity turnover of 1 billion which was an improvement of 869 million.

However, stock trading on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has progressively declined.

The reasons for this as cited by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) is dominance by big firms, lack of new listings and falling investor demand.

Notably, the companies that were able to sell big share turnovers were, Safaricom, Equity Bank, KenGen Kenya Power and Lighting Company and Nation Media Group.
Nairobi Securities Exchange Gainers

Among the biggest gainers of the Nairobi Securities Exchange market is property development company, Home Afrika Limited listed in the NSE under the ticker name HAFR.

Currently, Home Afrika is Kenya’s only publicly traded property developer.

The shares at Home Afrika retailed at Kshs 0.36 and they presented at 9.09% gain.

Further, Trans Century Limited listed under the NSE as TCL also profited with a gain of 8 %. The investment company, as of end of the trading week sold its shares at Kshs 0.36 per share.

Likewise, Kengen PLC listed a gain of 7.48% while selling their shares at Kshs 2.30 per share by the end of trading date, Friday 27th.

Notably, KenGen Plc is currently the 15th most valuable stock on the NSE with a market capitalization of Kshs 15.1 billion, which makes up about 1.08% of the Nairobi Securities Exchange equity market.

The other gainers in the last trading week were Centum Investment Company listed on the securities exchange as CTUM.

Centum closed the trading week selling its shares at Kshs 9 per share. Moreover, as a gainer, it saw an upward tick of 5.88% from the previous trading week.

Holding company, Unga Group Limited listed in the NSE under the ticker symbol, UNGA was also a major gainer in the just ended trading week.

Notably, a holding company is a company that is created to buy and sell shares of other companies, which it then controls.

The company gained 3.33% while selling its shares at Kshs 15.50 per unit.

Unga Group was the 55th most traded stock on the Nairobi Securities Exchange over the Jul 31 to Oct 27, 2023.
Nairobi Stocks Exchange Losers

Subsequently, the losers in the NSE include Umeme Limited, traded under ticker symbol UMEME.

Umeme Limited is a Uganda-based company engaged in the distribution and sale of electricity.

By the end of trading on Friday 27th October, the electricity distributor registered a loss of 9.70%.In addittion, sales of shares for this company retailed at Kshs 13.50 per share in comparison to Thursday 19 October where the shares sold at Kshs 12.80 per share.

Other losers in the NSE are STANLIB Fahari I-REIT listed under the ticker FAHR. The Fahari I-REIT is Kenya’s first Real Estate Investment Trust.

It registered a loss of 9.22% while trading shares at Kshs 6.30 per share.

Another company that registered losses was the manufacturing, importation and sales company, Sameer Africa Plc, listed under the ticker SMER.

It registered a loss of 7.42% while selling its shares at Kshs 2.12.

BK Group was also a loser in the NSE registering a loss of 7.04% while selling its shares at Kshs 33.