The NSE 20 Share Index closed last week at its highest in just over one year at 3,899.62 points. Read here to learn more about this and other stock market indexes.

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

See a summary of Friday’s share trading activity here.

KenolKobil – Late last week the petroleum marketer released this year’s half year results that saw it make a 3.8 billion shilling loss after tax on high borrowing costs and foreign exchange fluctuations. The share has gained 10 cents this month to Friday’s close of KES 15.10. Despite a trading suspension between May and mid-June, KenolKobil shares have climbed this year to trade above 14 shillings a share since July from below 10 shillings in January; closing at a six year high of KES 13.05 in June. A large part of the share’s rally has been driven by speculation on the back of acquisition talks of the company by Swiss based Puma Energy which were made public in May. We will watch how the share trades today in light of last week’s billion shilling loss announcement.

Safaricom – The shares closed last week at their highest closing price in just over one and a half years at KES 4.00. Since July the shares have traded above the 3.5 shilling mark from below that in the six months to June. The shares have traded below their IPO price of KES 5 for the majority of the period since early 2008 when they were listed at the stock market. On Friday the shares were the fifth most traded with 1.11 million shares moving across the counter. We will watch if the shares top Friday’s 4 shilling high today.

Nation Media Group – The shares ended last week at their highest closing price in 3 years at KES 205. They have gained since mid-August from a range below 175 shilling per share to prevail at the 200 shilling range since late last month on the back of growth in half year earnings. We will watch if they edge further today.