Eyes on Equity as bourse sets sight on earnings announcement
Results announcement shaped the NSE bourse leaders as Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB Sh50.50) joins Safaricom (SCOM Sh28.50) in releasing profits.
Equity Bank (EQTY Sh50.00) which is expected to release its results today closed the three counters that traded 68.5 percent of the market activity.
KCB Group which posted Sh5.18 billion in net profits for the first three months to March was up 1 percent moving 1.8 million shares valued at Sh92.5 million while Equity Bank saw the highest net outflows at $1.1 million, prior to its first-quarter results released today.
Standard Investment Bank said that Safaricom was the top gainer, up 4.6 percent to close at Sh28.50, after four consecutive dips post FY18 results.
After recommending that it should not pay dividends for the year to December 2017, Flame Tree Group was the worst-performing counter yesterday shedding 9 percent to close at Sh3.50.
Flame Tree Group a small scale manufacturer which also sells cosmetics and snacks announced last month that net profit fell by 72.58 percent to Sh39.75 million from Sh144.98 million a year earlier.
Generally, turnover declined to Sh518 million from the previous session’s Sh1.2 billion while the number of shares traded stood at 14.7 million against 37 million posted on Tuesday.
The NSE 20 share Index was down 27.66 points to stand at 3533.07 while the All Share Index (NASI) picked up 2.75 points or 1.57 percent to stand at 177.62. The NSE 25 Share index added 27.87 points to stand at 4642.25.
Foreign investors were net sellers for the fifth consecutive session, recording net outflows of USD 2.2m – 23.6 percent lower than the previous session.
