At today’s NSE trading, the NSE 20-Share Index reached a new one –year high closing up 0.03 percent at 3,845.93 points up from 3,844.61 points last week while the NSE All-Share Index closed with no change at 83.85 points similar to yesterday.

HIGHEST VOLUMES

CIC Insurance Group was today’s most actively traded share with 4.82 million shares moving across the counter while second was Cooperative Bank of Kenya with 2.44 million shares traded from 1.79 million yesterday. Third was Kenya Commercial Bank with 2.19 million shares up from 494,200 shares yesterday while the fourth most active share was Equity Bank with 2.07 million shares moving across the counter. The fifth most traded share was Safaricom with 1.45 million shares traded down from 1.62 million shares yesterday.

COUNTER WATCHLIST

• NIC Bank – The share close up 0.68 percent to KES 37.00 from KES 36.75 at yesterday’s close of trading. Last week the bank received a green light from the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) to conduct a rights issue in August to raise KES 2.07 billion towards the bank’s local and regional expansion. The bank’s shares have been on an overall upward trend since April this year, reaching a high of KES 38.00 in May compared to trading in the range of KES 24.00 at the beginning of the year, data from Bloomberg shows.
• Centum Investment – On the day that it was revealed in the Business Daily that the investment company’s CEO James Mworia has reduced his shareholding in Centum by more than half, the share closed at the same price as yesterday at KES 12.65 after gaining for a period of time during the day before falling back once again.
• East Africa Cables – One day after the company announced a 59 percent increase in profit for the six months to June this year, shares in the cable maker gained 0.48 percent today, closing at KES 10.50 from KES 10.45 yesterday.