Here are the shares we will be closely watching in today’s trading at the Nairobi Securities Exchange:

• Standard Group – The media company announced a 45 percent drop in pre-tax profit for the six months to June this year to 150.7 million shillings from 274.5 million last year. On Thursday last week the share had one of its biggest drops of this year losing 9 percent to KES 22.75 per share. Friday saw the share drop further to KES 22.50. The announcement of lower earnings could be hurting the share and we will observe it in today’s trading in light of this.

• CFC Stanbic Holdings – The parent company of CFC Stanbic Bank and CFC Stanbic Financial Services is due to announce its half-year results this week. Last year the Group made a pre-tax profit of 2.8 billion shillings for the year ended December.  Read more on last year’s financial results here. The share has risen since July this year to trade above KES 42 per share compared to in the range of KES 40 per share in the months to April this year. It closed last week at KES 43.75. We will watch the share in today’s trading to see how it performs with half-year earnings due to be announced soon.

• Total Kenya – This month the share has been trading at its highest range of the year, remaining above 16 shillings per share and hitting this year’s highest at KES 17.40 less than two weeks ago. The share was the highest gaining share on Friday where it gained 6.7 percent to close at KES 17.35 per share; 5 cents short of the KES 17.40 high. We will observe the counter today to see if it rallies beyond this high.