FILE PHOTO | NMG 

The derivatives market (NEXT) at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) transacted the highest ever quarterly turnover in the first three months of this year — signalling the uncertainty that necessitated more hedging.

“The derivative market registered a 47.32 percent increase in trading to 302 contracts traded in Q1 2020 from 205 contracts traded in Q4 2019,” said the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) in its latest quarterly report.

Safaricom came in second with 47 contracts at a total turnover of 2.31 million followed by 47 Equity Bank #ticker:EQTY contracts traded at a total turnover of Sh2.23 million,” said the CMA.

British American Tobacco #ticker:BAT came in last having joined the derivatives market in November 2019, 3 contracts were traded which amounted to 0.13 million.

Currently, only Safaricom, KCB, Equity, Barclays, BAT, EABL #ticker:EABL and NSE 25-share index are traded on the derivatives market.