The share price of WPP Scangroup ( SCAN ) Tuesday rose 26.2 percent to Sh22.1, adding Sh1.9 billion to the market capitalisation of the marketing services firm.
Investors rushed to buy the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm’s shares to beat the books closure for its special dividend of Sh8 per share or an aggregate of Sh3.4 billion.
The dividend, which represents a yield of 36.1 percent based on yesterday’s closing price, will be paid within one month to shareholders on the register as of July 28.
The stock rally, which saw the counter hit a high of Sh25, lifted Scangroup’s market value to Sh9.5 billion from Sh7.5 billion on Monday.
The volume of shares traded yesterday surged to 2.5 million units in deals valued at a total of Sh56.1 million.
Scangroup now has the highest dividend yield among the publicly-traded firms, with some of the blue-chips cutting back on cash returns to shareholders citing the need to preserve capital in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.