Kenyan shilling steady, main share index up

The Kenyan shilling was barely moved on Monday, remaining within its recent range, while the benchmark share index rose.

At the 1330 GMT close of trade, commercial banks posted the shilling at 102.20/30, barely changed from Friday’s closing rate of 102.10/20.

Sluggish dollar demand and the prospects of the intervention by the central bank has kept the shilling in a tight band of 102.00-102.50 in recent weeks.

“Dollar demand is very subdued,” said one Nairobi-based trader.

Policymakers tightened rates in July and August to stem extreme volatility in the currency market.

In the stock market, the main NSE20 edged up 0.54 percent to close at 4,016.18 points as investors regrouped after Friday’s losses, when the index shed 50.16 points.

In the debt market, bonds worth 1.2 billion shillings were traded, slightly up from Friday’s volume of 1.0 billion shillings.