At today’s trading at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, we will be closely observing the following share counters:
- NIC Bank – The shares gained for a fourth consecutive day to close at KES 37.75 representing a 1.34 percent gain since Wednesday’s closing price. NIC will next month carry out Kenya’s second largest rights issue of this year, set to raise 2.07 billion shillings towards the bank’s local and regional expansion. Read more on this here. Pesatalk will continue to watch the NIC counter which is expected to continue gaining as the rights issue nears.
- KCB – Yesterday the bank emerged as the most profitable bank in Kenya after announcing a pre-tax profit of 7.88 billion shillings for the six months to June this year. On Wednesday, KCB shares yesterday closed at their highest price in just under three years at KES 24.25 which is where they remained by close of trading yesterday. With the bank having emerged top again after yesterday’s profit announcement, we will observe the counter in today’s trading to see how the shares react.
- Equity Bank – After hitting their highest price of the year for a second time on Wednesday, shares in Kenya’s second most profitable bank dropped for the first time in six days of trading, losing 1.10 percent to close at KES 22.50 from KES 22.75 on Wednesday. Two of the banks shareholders, British-American Insurance and the Muguku family have both offloaded a total 3 percent stake in the bank worth an estimated 2.42 billion shillings within the six months to June this year (Business Daily). In addition, Equity Bank was yesterday displaced as Kenya’s most profitable bank by KCB which posted 14.5 percent more profit than the former. In light if these developments, the share could already be falling based on yesterday’s performance. We will keep an eye on the counter in today’s trading to see how it fairs.