Crude oil which entered a bear market at the beginning of the week slumped to a 10-month low on Wednesday.
Oil producing capitals the world over are like rabbits caught in the headlights.
I am of the view that crude oil will fall to as low as $32.00 a barrel in New York this year, and that this will be the catalyst for a financial crisis of the Lehman 2008 variety in the oil producers.
Most double-downed and borrowed and never factored a price collapse of the nature we are currently experiencing.
The Nairobi All Share rallied +0.73% to close at a fresh 23-month high. The All Share and the NSE20 Index entered a bull market in the last week of last month.
The Nairobi All Share is +15.75% in 2017.
The Nairobi NSE20 Index edged 4.4 points firmer to close at an 11-month high of 3612.55
The market looks fully-priced in the short term.
Safaricom rallied +2.19% to close at 23.25 and traded 5.718m shares. Safaricom is +21.4% in 2017 and targets its record closing high of 23.50 [reached on 2 occasions this month] in very short order.
Equity Group was the most actively traded share at the Securities Exchange and corrected -2.6% lower to close at 37.50 and traded 5.179m shares worth 194.327m. Equity is +25% in 2017, but has corrected 6.25% off a 2017 closing high of 40.00 reached on June 15.
KCB Group closed unchanged at 37.50 and traded 4.427m shares worth 166.945m. KCB is +30.43% in 2017 and has corrected -9.75% off a 2017 closing high from June 5.
Co-operative Bank closed unchanged at 17.00 and traded 8.393m shares worth 142.697m. Co-op Bank is +28.78% in 2017, and has corrected -3.409% off a 2017 closing high of 17.60 reached June 6.
Standard Chartered Bank rallied +1.95% to close at 209.00.
National Bank which had rallied +62.58% in June finally met some profit taking and rowed back -4.42% to close at 10.80.
Centum closed unchanged at 43.25 and traded 969,000 shares. Centum is +16.89% in 2017 and as room to rally towards 50.00.
EABL corrected -0.75% off a 2017 closing high to close at 265.00 and traded 211,700 shares. EABL is +8.606% in 2017.
BOC Kenya was the biggest Gainer at the Exchange today rallying +9.41% to close at a 2017 high of 93.00. BOC Kenya is +13.4% in 2017.
Mumias Sugar which had rallied on nothing in particular corrected -8.00% to close at 1.15
Aly-Khan is a financial analyst