NAIROBI, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Trading at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) was stifled on Monday with the market clocking a turnover of a paltry 2.5 million U.S. dollars from 8.8 million shares.

Equity turnover stood at 4.6 million dollars on a volume of 13.7 million shares on Friday, with the bourse's downward path continuing as foreigners cut sales after reaping from recent surge in prices of large cap stocks.

However, despite the declined training, a number of blue chip stocks rose, helping to lift the NSE 20 Share Index up.

The index was up 6.22 points to close at 3,719.47 from 3,713.25 points in the previous session. The index was pushed up by Stanchart, which went up 1.4 percent to 2.1 dollars and Kakuzi, which rose 10 percent to hit 3.9 dollars, among others.

On the other hand, the NSE All Share Index (NASI) went down 0.04 to close at 180.21 points.

The most traded counters were Safaricom, Kenya Commercial Bank, Barclays Bank, Equity Bank and NIC Bank, moving around 4.5 million, 855,800, 786,700, 660,900 and 502,800 shares respectively.

At the bond market, turnover stood at 29 million dollars from 21 million dollars at close of last week on Friday. Enditem