Forex inflows boost strength of Kenya shilling

Kenya’s shilling closed a touch stronger on Monday, helped foreign exchange inflows ahead a government bond auction.

At 1300 GMT, the shilling was quoted at 102.05/15 to the dollar, slightly firmer than Friday’s close of 102.10/20.

The shilling has hovered in a range of roughly 102.00 to 102.50 since early November, after appreciating from September levels when it almost touched an all-time low of 106.80.

Traders noted some inflows of dollars ahead of the auction of a nine-year, 30 billion shillings ($294.12 million) government infrastructure bond on Dec. 9.

“The shilling gained on the back inflows from off-shore (investors),” said one trader at a commercial bank.

A second trader confirmed infrastructure bond inflows and said the local currency could push towards the 102 level in coming days if the off-shore interest persists.

In the stock market, the benchmark NSE20 share index was flat, closing 0.62 points lower at 3990.02 points. In the debt market, bonds worth 1.5 billion shillings were traded, down from Friday’s volume of 2.5 billion shillings.