The NSE20 rallied 37.42 points to close at 3825.93 which is a fresh 2012 and a 12 month closing high. The benchmark index has rallied 620 points and 19.344% in 2012. The Nairobi All Share firmed 0.76 points to close at 83.26. Market Cap was 1.097959 trillion. Equity Turnover was 385.375m as buyers paid up for supply in a number of counters. Safaricom +2.67% closed at a fresh 12 month high, EABL +0.8933%, KCB +1.08% were well traded and led the market higher today.

In Commercial and Services

Safaricom traded 2nd and rallied 2.67% to close at 3.85 which is a fresh 2012 and a 16 month closing high. Safaricom traded 16.535m shares worth 63.617m and has rallied 11.594% over the last month. At the closing bell, Safaricom was 3.85 bid for good Size. My objective of 4.00 is very much in sight now. Uchumi shaved off 10 cents to close at 15.60 while Access Kenya eased 5 cents to close at 4.75 and traded 235,000 shares.

Among Banks

Kenya Commercial Bank rallied 1.08% to close at 23.50. KCB has posted a 50.445% total return in 2012 and sits 4.081% beneath its 2012 closing high of 24.50 from May 16th. I expect a move through that level ahead or coincident with the H1 earnings release. There is a real solid bid at 23.00 which has been there for a long time and is essentially underwriting the price. Equity Bank traded 4th and firmed 1.15% to close at 22.00 and traded 1.876m shares worth 41.281m. Equity Bank is +38.601% in 2012 and sits 3.296% below its 2012 closing high of 22.75. Equity Bank trades on a Trailing PE of 7.888. Diamond Trust Bank bounced 5.00% to close at 94.50 while Barclays Bank firmed 1.0909% to close at 13.90. Barcclays is +6.513% over the last month. NIC Bank eased 0.68% to close at 36.5 and is cum bonus. CIC Insurance traded 5th at the exchange. CIC Insurance was introduced via a listing on Wednesday and corrected 8.571% lower to close at 4.80 and traded 5.703m shares worth 27.524m. We are only 2 sessions into a price discovery process.

In Industrial and Allied

EABL was the most actively traded counter at the Securities Exchange for 3rd consecutive session. EABL firmed 0.8933% to close at 227.00 and was trading at 230.00 +2.68% session highs at the close. EABL is +33.43% in 2012 and sits 5.416% below a record closing high of 240.00 from the 6th of July. I expect EABL to pierce that all time closing high ahead of or coincident with its Full Year earnings release. Athi River Mining traded 3rd and rallied 8.79% to close at 198.00. ARM is +25.3164% in 2012 and sits 3.416% below its all time closing of 205.00 from July 6th this year. ARM trades on a Trailing PE of 17.0196. Bamburi Cement improved 0.56% to close at 179.00 and traded 25,000 shares. Demand outweighed supply by a factor of 9-1. Bamburi Cement has rallied 14.74% over the last 4 weeks and trades on a Trailing PE of 12.3962. KenolKobil firmed 1.2944% to close at 15.65 and is +61.608% on a total return basis in 2012 and sits 4.87% below an all time closing high from July 3rd.