Bond trading at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) recorded a major rebound Thursday to peak at 40 million U.S. dollars, a rise of 400 percent since Monday.

The turnover was the highest in recent times after hitting a low of 4 million dollars a day last month. On Monday, bond trading stood at 8 million dollars before rising to 16 million dollars in the Tuesday session and Wednesday to 24 million dollars.

The best performing bonds during Thursday session were the IFB 1/2017/12Yr and IFB 1/2011/12Yr, with the former having been issued recently.

According to analysts, trading is vibrant at the market as investors seek to cash in on government bonds, which the Central Bank cancelled following bids that were highly abnormal.

Since the beginning of the year, the Central Bank has cancelled the sale of at least two Treasury bonds but sold them again in tap sales. All the bonds floated at the debt market end up at the NSE bonds market where they are traded.

Yields on the bonds range between 11 and 14 percent, which are higher than even those at the debt market. The yield curve, according to analysts, has exhibited an increasing upward trend, especially for one to five years tenure securities.

In 2016, bond trading at the bourse hit over 4 billion dollars as investors had a good year, with favourite bonds being FXD1/2016/2yr, FXD 1/2016/5yr, IFB 1/2016/9 yr, FXD1/2012/010 and FXD 1/2013/5yr.