The NSE 20 Share Index today dropped for the first time since Wednesday last week, dropping 0.2 percent to close at 3,870.51 points from 3,878.52 yesterday. Meanwhile, the All Share Index also lost 0.03 percent to close at 84.32 points from 84.35 points yesterday.

HIGHEST VOLUMES

Safaricom was the most traded share at the NSE for a third consecutive day, with 14.07 million shares traded from 21.48 million shares yesterday while KCB was second with 8.16 million shares traded up from 884,300 shares yesterday. The third most active share was Mumias Sugar with 1.44 million shares moving across the counter while fourth was Equity Bank with 1.17 million shares traded. CIC Insurance Group was the fifth most traded share with 920,300 shares traded down from 3.3 million shares yesterday.

COUNTER WATCHLIST

• NIC Bank – The bank’s shares rallied for a fifth consecutive day to close at their highest price  this year at KES 38.25 after gaining 1.32 percent from KES 37.75 yesterday. NIC will next month carry out Kenya’s second largest rights issue of this year, set to raise 2.07 billion shillings towards the bank’s local and regional expansion. Read more on this here.
• KCB – One day after the bank edged out Equity Bank by emerging the most profitable bank in Kenya so far, the share closed with no change from yesterday at KES 24.25 which is the share’s highest price in just under three years. Read more about KCB’s profit announcement here.
• Equity Bank – Shares in Kenya’s second most profitable bank closed at the same price as yesterday one day after the bank announced a 32 percent growth in profit for the six months to June this year and it was reported that two of banks shareholders namely British-American Insurance and the Muguku family both offloaded a combined stake of 3 percent in the bank worth an estimated 2.42 billion shillings (Business Daily).