West Texas Intermediate crude oil for July delivery slumped by a $1.40 to trade $43.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange the lowest since November 14, 2016.
Oil has been in a sharp slump since OPEC underwhelmed
the market some four weeks ago. I expect a further dive and a crisis [of
the scale of
the Dick Fuld crisis of 2008] in
the oil producing capitals of
the World.
The Nairobi All Share eased back -0.23 points to close at 152.74. The All Share is +14.54% in 2017 and has corrected -0.86% over two sessions and off a 23 month high.
The Nairobi NSE20 rallied a further +17.25 points to close at 3600.01 a fresh 11 month high.
Equity turnover spiked big to clock 1.621b.
Safaricom ticked -1.09% easier to close at 22.75 and traded 16.454m shares. Safaricom is in bull mode but near term in a shallow price correction.
Kenya Airways eased -1.709% to close at 5.75 and on good volume of 1.094m shares.
Uchumi closed unchanged and has been unable to get any forward traction on the woes of Nakumatt.
The Capital Markets Authority issued a cautionary announcement headlined, ''ALLEGED PURCHASE/TAKEOVER OF NATIONAL BANK OF KENYA BY KCB GROUP''
''The attention of the Capital Markets Authority has been drawn to the continued media reports on possible acquisition of majority shares of National Bank of Kenya Limited by KCB Group Plc. We wish to clarify that no regulatory filings have been made to the Authority by KCB Group regarding this matter and no confirmation of the existence of such a transaction has been received.
In view of this, members of the public are advised to exercise caution when dealing with the shares of both KCB Group and National Bank limited. An appropriate announcement shall be made in the event that details of such a transaction (if any) are filed with the Authority as required by the applicable Regulations''
This announcement did not staunch the parabolic rally in National Bank which rallied a further +3.73% to close at 11.10 and closed the session trading at limit high +9.81%. National Bank is +64.44% in June and since the story to which the CMA is referencing, broke.
KCB which had corrected -10.00% through June rebounded +2.77% to close at 37.00 and traded 3.946m shares.
The NSE rallied +4.67% to close at a 2017 high of 16.80.
EABL closed unchanged at a 2017 high of 260.00 on heavy volume action of 1.599m
shares worth 417.444m but interestingly closed
the session at 267.00 +2.69% an intraday session high for 2017.
Mumias Sugar Company rallied by the daily maximum of +8.33% to close at a fresh 2017
high of 1.30. Mumias has rallied an
eye popping +73.33% in June on nothing in particular.
Kengen firmed a further +0.56% to close a fresh 2017 closing high of 8.85 and traded 2.962m shares. PIC SA mopped up surplus shares and underwrote the price.