HIGHEST VOLUMES

The top 3 traders today were the same as yesterday. Safaricom was the highest performer again but 14.33 million shares traded. In second place was Equity bank with 4.59 million shares, up from yesterday’s 3.09 million shares. Third spot went to Kenya Commercial Bank which closed with 3.68 million stocks changing ownership, up 600,000 from yesterday’s close. Mumias Sugar Company joined the big boys at fourth place with 2.47 million shares.

COUNTER WATCH

There was no specific counter that was being monitored. We shall however, look at stocks whose price change was a result of the 3 factors listed in the morning.

• Kenya Power & Lighting – The company had announced dividend payment of KES 0.30 on 27 October. Shareholders to be paid have to be listed by books closure on 19 December 2012. This has caused the stock’s price to fluctuate with demand for the share sky-rocketing. Over 1.5 million shares were traded for the day at an average of KES 17.45
• Centum Investment – The firm raised KES 3.2 billion in the largest privately placed bond in Kenya. Part of the funds will be used for the Two-Rivers project that they recently announced. Shareholders may be looking to invest now when the stock price is low so that once the project is complete, they stand to benefit from the potential high revenue. It is more of a speculative move, but one that can cause significant movement nonetheless. Over 380,000 shares were traded at an average price of KES 12.25 today.

Investors can maintain their smile and laugh off their profits as they head to their banks. The 20-share index improved to 4171.87 points, up 13.49 from yesterday’s close. Market capitalization increased to KES 1.241 trillion, up KES 7 trillion from yesterday. The All-share index also improved to 93.13 points, up by 0.54 points.