Turnover halved to Sh237 million at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) on Thursday as investors traded with caution amid heightened political noise in the country.

Investors moved just 11.5 million shares compared to 27.2 million traded on Wednesday, while the NSE 20 share index closed in the red for the seventh straight session.

The last two weeks have seen lower trading among investors with trades averaging Sh422.4 million, in contrast to the first half of the month when they traded an average of Sh1.08 billion per day.

“Market turnover was depressed as has been the trend over the past few trading sessions, we expect this to continue with the current uncertainty in the market due to the rising political temperatures,” said Genghis Capital in a market brief.

Although the decline in trading activity is not as pronounced as was the case in early August when the General Election was held, analysts say that the political uncertainty is causing investors to adopt a wait and see attitude before committing to buy and sell in the market.