The winners

At the close of the market today BOC Kenya limited, Olympia Capital Holdings, Williamson Tea Kenya Limited, Kenya Orchards and East African Portland Cement are the companies whose share price appreciated the most. Nevertheless, only 500 Kenya Orchards shares changed hands today, whereas only 1100 Williamson Tea shares were traded.

The losers

Eveready East Africa went down 9.76% and was the biggest loser today. The battery maker had also been the biggest decliner today morning.  Other counters which shed value are: Jubilee Insurance, Limuru Tea, Longhorn Kenya Limited and NIC bank. They ended the day at KES  453, 900, 25.25, and  67.50 respectively.

Most shares traded

Equity bank, Co-operative bank of Kenya, Kenya Commercial Bank, Safaricom limited and Mumias Sugar Company were the biggest movers. 1.69, 1.57, 1.19, 0.83 and 0.65 million shares of each respectively changed hands today. Banks are expected to start releasing their financial results for the third quarter (July-September) towards the end of this month.

Market snapshot

As at the ringing of the closing bell today.

Asks and Bids

Asks are prices quoted by prospective sellers while bids are prices quoted by prospective buyers. Pending bids/asks are those that are yet to get a match. They (pending bid/asks) can be used as an indicator of the direction the price of a share will take.

Eveready the top loser today ended the day with pending asks but no corresponding pending bids. Its supply outstripped demand, 437,000 to 100,000 shares. BAT also ended the day with more pending asks than bids. Three of BAT's pending asks quoted a price of KES 1000. If the asks were to go through, that would be the  highest price a share has ever exchanged at on the NSE.

Olympia capital holdings (OCH) and Kenya Orchards (ORCH) among the top gainers today ended the day with pending bids and no pending asks.