The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) opened the week on a low as turnover dropped 79 percent on Monday.

A total of 9.9 million shares valued at 2.3 million U.S. dollars were traded, down from 11 million dollars on a volume of 49 million shares posted last Friday.

Kenya's leading telecom operator Safaricom declined 1.2 percent to 0.20 dollars on a volume of 2.2 million shares, down from 0.21 dollars from the previous session.

Kenya Commercial Bank actively moved 2.3 million shares at 0.32 dollars, a 0.8 percent decline, topping the day's trading at the bourse.

Equity Bank went down 2 percent to trade at 0.37 dollars on a volume of 1.2 million shares.

In total, the banking sector had 4.4 million shares traded and represented 44 percent of the day's traded volume.

The commercial and services sector accounted for 14 percent of the day's traded volume, with Kenya Airways moving 1.2 million shares and closed at 0.03 dollars, a 3 percent drop.

The NSE 20 Share Index shed 6.35 points to stand at 3,456.21 due to drop in prices of stocks in the benchmark indicator.

The All Share Index (NASI) too was down 2.02 points to stand at 144.73 while the NSE 25 Share Index closed 49.13 points lower to stand at 3,900.01.

The bond market had securities worth 11 million dollars transacted, down from 7.3 million dollars last Friday.

Source : XINHUA