Another great leap for the Nairobi Securities Exchange today as the indices exhibited a year-best performance. Both indices picked their way upwards with the NSE 20 Share Index edging up 24.24 points to close at 4119.50 and the All-Share Index performance climbing up 0.34 points to close at 90.62

HIGHEST VOLUMES

To performance today goes to Safaricom which saw 4.33 million shares transacted over the counter at an average of KES 4.35. In second place for a consecutive day was Equity Bank with 2.09 Million shares, a drop by 1 million and in third place was Kenya Power with 1.08 Million shares trading. Fourth place was scooped by Kenya Commercial Bank with 904,400 shares changing ownership compared 1 Million shares changing ownership.

COUNTER WATCH

• Standard Chartered Bank – The counter showed signs of stability having closed at KES 221 and transacting a total of 86,400 shares. This could be a result of dimming demand for the rights that are scheduled to end today. The rights will have the effect of decreasing the share price to KES 215, up from KES 206 when the rights issue commenced. We shall keep an eye on volumes traded on this last day to see the effect it will have on the stock’s valuation.
• British American Tobacco – The stock closed at KES 459 yesterday with no stocks changing hands. It has, however, constantly performed well over the past 5 years having landed at its current price up from KES 88 almost 5 years ago. The market’s valuation might hit the KES 500 mark later on in the year and we shall be looking out for factors that may contribute to it. For now, we see if the share will first cross the KES 460 mark today.
• Carbacid Investments Ltd – The counter closed yesterday at KES 120 with exactly 3,300 shares changing ownership, down from 4000 yesterday. There was an earlier announcement of a final dividend of KES 3, making its total payable for the year KES 6. Payments will be made to the registered shareholders at the end of business on 22 November, 2012. We shall be watching to see if this corporate action will have an effect on shares demanded by the public between now and the close of the register.