Kenyan shilling holds steady, shares rise

The Kenyan shilling finished unchanged on Thursday due to tight liquidity in domestic money markets, while shares inched higher.

At 1330 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 105.55/60 per dollar, unmoved from Wednesday’s close of 105.55/65.

“It’s really stable. What is really supporting it is the liquidity,” a senior trader at one commercial bank said.

The weighted average interbank lending rate rose to 25.7934 percent on Wednesday from 25.6724 percent a day earlier.

Tight liquidity usually makes it slightly more expensive for banks to bet against the shilling, thus offering support to the currency.

The shilling has lost 14 percent against the dollar this year, mainly due to the greenback’s strength and a surge in imports, faring better than other regional currencies like the Ugandan shilling, which is down by a quarter this year.

In the stock market, the benchmark NSE-20 share index added 15.28 points to close at 4,222.55 points.

Kenyan shares are down this year mainly due to investor flight into less risky assets ahead of an anticipated interest rate increment by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The bear run has been accompanied by short-lived attempts to rally since late last month.

In the debt market, bonds worth 220 million shillings were traded, down from the previous day’s volume of 401 million shillings.