Banking stocks extended their free fall on Monday at the NSE. Two hours to close of trading, Equity Bank and KCB had lost by a combined 18.58 per cent to settle at Sh. 26.75 and Sh. 24.50 per share respectively.
the two stocks recorded large traded volumes which hit 16.16 million and 3.8 million respectively. They had a market capitalization of 100.95 billion and 75.11 billion respectively.
I&M Bank was down by 9.77 per cent to Sh. 78.50 per share while Co-operative Bank was down by 9.72 per cent to trade at Sh. 9.75 per share.
The massive fall in bank share prices came after President Uhuru Kenyatta signed a bill controlling interest rates. The lending rate is now supposed to be a maximum of 14.5 per cent and deposit rates are supposed to be at 7.35 per cent at a minimum, where the Central Bank Rate is the base rate.
