In today's trading at the Nairobi Securities Exchange we observe the following counters:

Sasini: Last week the tea and coffee grower announced a 71% drop in profit for the first half of its financial period. The KES 178 million profit was attributed to the higher cost of inputs and lower international prices. We will observe the performance of the share today to see what effect this will have on the share price. In yesterday's trading the share appreciated by 10 cents but it remains in our watch list.

Uchumi Supermarkets Limited: at the beginning of last week the share appeared to be very promising gaining consistently over the first few days. However, by the end of the week the share price has dropped drastically to close at KES 17.20 down from KES 19.50 at some point during the week. The share yesterday opened trading at KES 16.50 but later stabilised at KES 15.50. Analysts attribute the price drop to profit-taking by shareholders and we will watch the share to see if the drops will persist or if indeed the share will stick at the closing price.

Kenya Airways: The company will tomorrow announce the performance of the rights shares. It is anticipated that the shares will be fully oversubscribed and possibly oversubscribed and either announcement would have a positive impact on the share price. With such sentiments, the share price should appreciate in expectation of the positive results of the rights issue. In the mean time, we will keep an eye on the share.

East African Portland Cement: The share was one of yesterday's big gainers, up 6.67% to close KES 4 at KES 64. The improvement in the share price came with only 200 shares being traded and we will watch the share today to see if there will be any notable patterns in today's trading.