The mysterious trades of Kenya Orchards shares have now been explained.
Kenya’s regulatory Capital Markets Authority has acted on a blatant market manipulation insider trading move that they found was instigated by an individual, using seven stockbrokers, to manipulate the shares of Kenya Orchards over a three-month period, during which the price rose steeply.
In the last year, Kenya Orchards share price has gone from Kshs 4.75 to Kshs 175, a 3,500% gain via small trading volumes of about 1,000 per day (The company has 12.8 million shares issued).
Kenya Orchards share price chart at Mystocks.co.ke
There seems to news driving these gallant share gains which have only been slowed by the 10% daily share price change limits. Their 2013 Financial results (PDF summary) show revenue of Kshs 47 million (~$540,000) up from Kshs 29 million, and a pre-tax profit of Kshs 966,022 (~$11,450) up from 757,201 the year. The company has assets of Kshs 58 million, of which 56 million is debt and 2 million is equity, with Kshs 55 million of accumulated losses.
In past years, the NSE has seen similar mystery gains from CitiTrust, ICDCI (now Centum) and EA Cables.