INDICES

At today’s NSE trading, the NSE All-Share Index closed down 0.7 percent at 81.71 points from 82.29 points yesterday while the NSE 20-Share Index also closed down 0.38 percent at 3,788.64 points from 3,802.96 points yesterday. The day had 6,811,000 shares traded in 1,004 deals.

HIGHEST VOLUMES

For a third day Safaricom was today the most traded share with 1.49 million shares traded down from yesterday’s 6.85 million shares. The second most traded share was KenolKobil with 921,300 shares traded while third was Co-operative Bank with 696,500 shares traded from 838,800 shares yesterday. The fourth most active counter was Mumias Sugar with 636,900 shares traded while fifth was Kenya Commercial Bank with 536,300 shares.

COUNTER WATCHLIST

• Standard Group – The media company closed today with no change from yesterday at Ksh 27. This price is the share's highest in almost one year. The share has ranged between Ksh 21 and Ksh 35 for the past year hitting a low of Ksh 18.64 in April this year, data from Bloomberg shows.
• Kenya Commercial Bank – The share dropped today for the first time in two weeks on the day it was reported that the bank is alleged to have overstated its earnings for 2011 by 19 percent through adjustments of International Accounting Standards (IAS) according to a newly released report by Citibank (Business Daily). The bank’s profit before tax increased 22 percent last year from 2010 reaching Ksh 14.08 billion from Ksh 11.54 billion in 2010. Kenya’s highest ranked bank of 2011 closed down 1.06 percent at Ksh 23.25 per share.
• Standard Chartered Bank – The bank’s share dropped for the first time in one week losing 1.54 percent to close at Ksh 192 from Ksh 195 yesterday. The bank yesterday announced that it will cut its base lending rate by 1.5 percent to 21.5 percent (Business Daily) making it the fifth bank to do so after Barclays Bank, Bank of Baroda, CFC Stanbic Bank and Commercial Bank of Africa.
• Bamburi Cement – Kenya’s top cement manufacturer rallied for a third consecutive day to reach a new high of Ksh 180 not seen in almost one year. Investor demand for the share is driving the share’s performance in anticipation of good half-year earnings, Pesatalk reported yesterday.