2 major moves occurred yesterday at the bourse, moves likely to have made the shareholders a couple of hundreds of thousands worth of change. Safaricom was the first having traded at KES 5.20 and Sameer Africa which closed at KES 3.95. Below are the reasons why they are worth monitoring today.

 COUNTER WATCH

• Safaricom Limited – One small step for the stock, one giant step for the shareholders. The company yesterday saw the shares trading at their highest price since listing. They closed the day at KES 5.20 having started at KES 5. Was there any real margin for a quick shilling? No. Buying each share yesterday saw you incur real costs amounting to KES 5.10 (due to the 2% transaction cost). For the same to translate to 98% of the money you will make after selling them, so that you break even, you would have to sell them at KES 5.20. Basically, a quick purchase and sale yesterday only saw you get back your investment. Only those who bought the stock when it traded below the KES 5 mark stood to make gains. That said, we shall keep an eye on the stock’s price movement and the quantity sold.
• Sameer Africa – An unlikely stock to watch? Yes, as many would probably say. Consider their price movement yesterday though. The stock price moved from KES 3.55 to KES 3.95. That was an 11.27% increase. Shareholders often keep an eye out for stocks that shoot up by close to 10%. The current shareholders will be smiling their way to the bank if they sold them yesterday. Even better if the stock crosses the KES 4 mark by the end of the today. We shall keep an eye on the stock price for the day.

Note: It is important to account for the transaction fee when venturing into stocks. A fee of 2% is applicable so it is always advisable to have some extra money to absorb the cost which applies to each process i.e. purchase and sale, separately. If you spend exactly KES 1000 to buy shares, you have effectively spent KES 980. For you to recover the KES 1000, you will have to make KES 1,020 from sale.