Kenyan Stocks Climb: Kenya Commercial Bank, Standard Chartered
Kenya’s price-weighted All-Share Index climbed 0.11 points, or 0.2 percent, to 57.75 points at close of trading in Nairobi after two days of declines. The measure gained 0.1 percent in the week.
The shares of 14 companies advanced, 14 fell and 27 were unchanged. The following were among the most active stocks on the Nairobi Stock Exchange today.
Kenya Commercial Bank Ltd. (KNCB KN), the East African nation’s biggest lender by assets and outlets, climbed 3.6 percent, the most in six weeks, to 21.75 shillings.
The lender said July 30 first-half net income declined two percent to 2.41 billion shillings as expansion costs rose.
“Demand is coming from high net-worth individuals and institutional investors,” Snehal Shah, head of research at Nairobi-based Kestrel Capital East Africa Ltd. said in a phone interview. “They are discounting these results and looking ahead at future growth.”
The lender, which has 156 outlets in Kenya and 26 in four neighboring nations, plans to increase the number of outlets in Southern Sudan to nine from five and seven in Rwanda from one currently, it said July 30.
Standard Chartered Bank Kenya Ltd. (SCBL KN), a unit of Standard Chartered Plc, gained 2 shillings, or 1.4 percent, to 149 shillings. The share price has risen 8 percent since Aug. 5 when the company said first-half net income jumped 46 percent to 2.34 billion shillings.
“Stanchart looks good, the balance sheet is strong.” Shah said. “Most people were surprised positively because they did not expect such good results”.
To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Ombok in Nairobi at eombok@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: August 7, 2009 09:14 EDT
