Last Friday, the performance at the bourse perked up with both major indices recording increased operation. The 20-share index  closed at 4159.73 and the All-share at 92.94 points. Our focus today shall be on British-American Tobacco (BAT Kenya) and British-American Investments (Britam)….no relation.

• British American Tobacco – It’s been barely two weeks since the start of the month and the share has leaped to KES 470 from KES 459 at the end of October. The close on Friday happened with exactly 300 shares traded. This comes at a time when the company is facing 2 strong obstacles; a suggestion by World Health Organization to charge a minimum excise duty of 70% and Russia’s crackdown on cigarette and beer sales. The latter is more immediate as Russia is one of the top tobacco consumers.  Local shareholders seem impervious to news on the international scene and its effects meaning significant changes will only occur from action by foreign investors. We shall be checking if the stock will move closer to the KES 500 mark.
• Britam – The Company has been on a massive rebranding campaign to change its name to Britam from Britak. Airwaves and billboards are but a few of the channels it has used over the last 4 weeks. The stock started off at KES 6.15 at the beginning of the campaign and closed at KES 6.25 as of last Friday. The stocks hit a low of KES 3.80 in February this year but have since made a general upward movement. It was in this same period that the company branched out to the countries within the Eastern Africa region, inclusive of South Sudan. We shall keep an eye out for price changes today.