At the close of trading last week the NSE 20-share index stood at 3,599.33 points up from 3,589.43 points the day before. The NSE All-share index also rose from 78.36 on Thursday to 78.46 on Friday. The increase in these indices is characteristic of end of week trading as investors either withdraw to capitalise on gains made during the week or inject money in anticipation of the coming week.

In today’s trading the counters to watch are:

Safaricom Limited: Last week the company released its financial results for the period ended 31^st March 2012, it reported a profit of KES 12.63 billion. This is slightly lower than it reported the previous year and such news is bound to have a bearing on the performance of the share.

NIC Bank: The bank has stated intention to carry out a rights issue in the course of the year. The share was also one of the best performing shares in last week’s trading. Consequently we will be keen to observe the activity surrounding the counter in today’s trading.

Mumias Sugar Company: Mumias’ share price has been quite active in the last few weeks. The share (as we analysed) has a lot of potential and with the increased trading activity of late, the share price will be one to watch.