According to the weekly bulletin released by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) the number of shares traded at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) from 16^th April to 20^th April 2012 stood at 159.92 million shares. This is 41.84 million shares more than the 118.08 million traded in a similar period the previous week. This significant increase could be attributed to the performance of a few specific counters at the NSE over the duration of the week.

Overall the total number of Safaricom Limited shares traded during the week was 56.99 million. On Wednesday 18^th 2012 this counter experienced 34.22 shares traded. This is spectacular! This amounts to KES 111,215,000 worth of Safaricom shares.

Other counters that were abuzz with activity over the duration of the week were Kenya Commercial Bank and Mumias Sugar Company.

Last week all NSE indices gained:

• The NSE 20-share index rose to 3534.27 points from 3454.34 on 12^th April 2012.
• The NSE All-share index rose to 76.14 points from 74.37 points on 12^th April 2012.

Market capitalization, the total value of tradable shares in the stock exchange, rose by KES 26.06 billion to KES 974.99 billion.

This shows that there is increased investor confidence in the Kenyan market.