NAIROBI, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- A rise in foreign investor outflow has hit the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), with the bourse shedding 1.79 billion U.S. dollars last week.

NSE data showed Monday that market capitalization, which measures investors' wealth, fell to some 21.4 billion dollars at the close of last week, from 23.2 billion dollars of the week before.

The 1.79 billion dollar decline brings the total of investor loss at the market since April to 7.4 billion dollars, according to the NSE.

During the period, foreign investors have been exiting a number of blue-chips, including favorite Safaricom and several banking stocks.

Safaricom on Friday closed the day at 0.24 dollars, a decline from a high of 0.27 dollars in the previous week.

Other key indices of the market are also falling, with the Nairobi All Share Index (NASI), NSE 20 and NSE 25 declining 8 percent, 5.4 percent and 8.4 percent respectively last week.

Analysts blamed the decline partly to failure by Kenya to renew a 1.5 billion dollar standby loan from the International Monetary Fund two weeks ago and the standoff over interest rate caps, which has affected performance of the banking industry.