The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) benchmark index gained a record 42 points on Monday to cross the 3,800 mark as it defied elections fever.

The NSE 20 Share Index was up 42.38 points to close at 3,818.27 amid massive decline in turnover as Kenya readies for polls Tuesday.

At least 15 stocks went up by between 1 percent and 10 percent to rally the benchmark index to the new high. Foreign participation stood at 43 percent and local participation stood at 57 percent.

On the other hand, the NSE All share Index (NASI) was up 0.66 points to close at 158.83 points as it sustained an upward trend.

Turnover declined 64 percent to 3 million U.S. dollars on Monday on a volume of 10.4 million shares from 28 million worth 8.4 million dollars on Friday.

The most traded counters were Home Afrika, Crown Berger, Safaricom, Cooperative Bank and Centum moving 1.6 million, 1.6 million, 1.5 million, 1.5 million and 600,000 shares respectively.

However, Crown Berger, Safaricom, Standard Chartered Bank, Centum and Cooperative Bank accounted for 84.3 percent of the total turnover.

At the bond market, turnover declined to 6 million dollars down from 20 million dollars in the previous session.