Bank of Kigali (BK) counter was the only active at the Rwanda Stock Exchange (RSE) yesterday, recording a total of over 39 million shares worth Rwf10.2 billion, the RSE market report indicates.

Celestin Rwabukumba, the RSE chief executive officer, said the bank’s performance was driven by institutional investors "wanting to buy the lender’s shares”.

"Transactions like these do not happen in one day per se. Institutional investors may want to buy huge volumes so they start looking around for sellers.

"A buyer in such a situation is the one who controls, which is why the price was slightly lower than the usual range,” Rwabukumba explained.

Over 39.04 million Bank of Kigali shares traded over the counter by institutional buyers at Rwf260 each, while an addition 1,500 shares were bought by other investors at between Rwf300 and Rwf310 each share.

This compares to last week when the lender traded 1,100 shares worth Rwf339,500 at between Rwf305 and Rwf310 each.

Bralirwa shares closed at Rwf415 each and pushed 3,600 shares, raking in Rwf1.5 million. This was an increase compared to the previous Monday, where the brewer traded 500 shares at between Rwf425 and Rwf430 each worth Rwf213,000.

The RSE Share Index went up by 108.8 points during the week, from 143.07 last Monday to 251.87 points yesterday.

Davis Gathaara, managing director of Barak Capital, a brokerage firm in Kigali, projects the performance of all counters to stay stable ‘at present levels’ for some time.