Here are the shares we will be closely watching in today’s trading at the Nairobi Securities Exchange:

See a summary of yesterday’s share trading here.

• Kengen – Kenya’s largest electricity producer is looking for a financial adviser to help it secure 420 billion shillings to increase electricity generation capacity to 3,000 megawatts from the current 1,183 megawatts according to latest news reports. This could boost the share as it shows investors that Kengen is actively moving forward with its planned capacity expansion which includes a 57.8 billion LNG power plant and the ongoing 109.5 billion shilling Olkaria Geothermal Power Projects that are a key component of Vision 2030 and will add at least 25% capacity to the power grid by 2014; increasing Kengen’s magnitude as a power producer in Africa. From mid May the share has traded between KES 8 and KES 9 with the year’s lowest range between February and April at an average centered around KES 7.50 per share. It closed yesterday at KES 8.35 which is 24 percent lower than it’s year’s highest price of KES 11.00 per share. We will watch to see if it gains on today’s news.

• KCB – The share yesterday climbed for a second day to close at KES 27.50 which was just 50 cents shy of the share’s highest closing price in more than 5 years at KES 28.00 reached on Thursday last week. We will watch to see if the share reaches this high again today. KCB’s is one of the most highly traded shares, moving 22.3 million shares last month to become the fourth most traded share at the bourse. According to last month’s NSE trading report, foreign investors express their interest in Kenya’s banking sector mainly through either KCB or Equity Bank, as shown by the latter’s similar rally to its highest of the year at KES 24 on Tuesday. Rising KCB has also helped push up the NSE 20 Share Index to Wednesday’s 52-week high of 3,959.10 points.