Kenya bourse revises indices, includes Safaricom

NAIROBI, June 26 (Reuters) - The Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) said on Thursday it would revise the list of companies in its two share indices to include newly listed mobile firm Safaricom, which added 10 billion shares to the bourse.

The government sold a 25 percent stake in Safaricom (SCOM.NR), whose shares started trading in early June.

The NSE said that in light of the huge number of shares that Safaricom had added to the market it had decided to include the firm on its NSE 20 Share Index .NSEK and the All Share Index .NASI from July 1.

"Though the regulations governing the NSE 20 Share Index require a company to have been trading for a minimum of one year prior to inclusion in the index the Board of Directors of the NSE have made an exception for Safaricom," chairman Jimnah Mbaru said in a statement.

Mbaru said that the inclusion of Safaricom will improve the accuracy of the 20-share index, given the amount of shares it has listed. Prior to Safaricom listing, the bourse had about 14 billion shares listed.

"This is in light of the significant impact it has occasioned in market capitalisation and trading activity at the bourse," Mbaru said.

To be included in the index a listed company has to have a minimum market capitalisation of 50 million Kenya shillings ($775,600) and a 20 percent of its shares available for trading.

Safaricom shares closed at 7.55 shillings on Wednesday, compared with Tuesday's 7.70 shillings.

Market capitalisation on the NSE stood at 1.242 trillion shillings on Wednesday's close, compared with Tuesday's close of 1.250 trillion shillings.