Investors at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) have continued to steadily take up day trading, with the new segment inching toward kes 1 billion of total trades at the bourse in March.
The NSE traded shares worth kes 19.8billion during the month, with day trading accounting for kes 983million, 5.1 per cent of the trades.
Day trading, which was launched in November 2021, allows investors to buy and sell the same company shares several times in a single day to make gains from small price movements, sometimes riding on events that sway share prices.
Before investors could only sell a stock a day after purchase, denying them an opportunity to benefit from the price movement on a given day.
“Same day trading is doing well accounting for 3 per cent of total market turnover year to date, we are targeting to get to 10 per cent this year,” NSE CEO Geoffrey Odundo as quoted by Capital business.
Odundo noted that they are keen on getting people interested in the markets to boost the uptake of day trading.
The NSE in its last financial statement noted that the retail sector is a key focus for them in 2022 and they have developed initiatives to support interest from the retail sectors, key among them being point for shares and day trading of shares.
Same-day trading is part of innovations aimed at boosting trading and liquidity at the NSE, which is the main entry point for foreigners seeking to invest in East Africa.
