COUNTER WATCH

• Safaricom Limited – A glimpse at the top losers (above) will show you that the counter’s performance dipped. The stock closed at KES 5, down 20 cents from yesterday’s close. Shareholders rushed to the counter to dispose of the stock while it was selling at an all-time high only to find the opposite. The share followed the economics basics of supply and demand. Whenever there is a high supply of a commodity, its value is to fall. Diamonds are rare, hence its high price and Safaricom was certainly not the day’s diamond. A total of 76.77 million shares changed hands resulting in market capitalization of KES 200 billion. Speculation that the price would increase further and greed were the key contributors to the share’s dip.
• Sameer Africa – Despite the great price jump yesterday, the counter did not see any price change for the day. The stock changed hands at the same price of KES 3.95 through the day with about 43,600 shares traded. Not much attention was paid to this counter and the shareholders breathed a sigh of relief. Had there been excessive supply of the share, the counter would have shares the same fate as that of the above company.

TOP TRADED COUNTERS

Scooping top spot was Safaricom limited with a jaw-breaking 76.77 million shares. A few million shares behind was Equity Bank which took the second place spot with 1.55 million shares changing ownership. The share was among the top price gainers unlike Safaricom, and edged up 1.05% to close at KES 24. In third place was Co-operative Bank with 1.05 million shares traded and the last spot for the day went to Mumias Sugar Company. The company saw 613,200 shares traded.