Some 70 million shares worth 17 million U.S. dollars were traded at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) on Thursday, a decline from 135 million valued at 23 million dollars in previous session as local investors retreated.

Their participation stood at 42 percent on Thursday from 70 percent in the previous session.

Foreign investors' participation, on the other hand, stood at 58 percent as they accounted for 46 percent total buying and 71 percent selling.
 
Safaricom, Kenya's leading telecom was the top traded stock during the session after moving 23 million shares from 17 million shares on Wednesday at unchanged price of 0.23 dollars.

At the second spot was Cooperative Bank which traded 16 million shares at 0.14 dollars, a marginal rise.

British America Tobacco moved 10 million shares to clinch the third spot while Equity Bank and power generator Kengen closed the list of the five most traded stocks during the session by moving 9 million and 2.3 million shares respectively.

The NSE 20 Share Index was up 26.5 points to close at 3,659.28 points while the NSE All share Index (NASI) was up 0.43 points to close at 152.99 points.

At the secondary bond market, turnover dropped to 16 million dollars from 24 million dollars in the previous session.