Kenyan shilling weakens, main stock index rises

Kenya’s shilling lost ground on Friday, hurt by dollar demand from the energy sector.

At the close of market, the shilling was quoted at 102.10/102.20 to the dollar, weaker than Thursday’s close of 101.80/101.90.

“We saw some (dollar) demand from the energy sector,” said one Nairobi-based trader. “That’s what pushed the market up (weaker)” he added.

Trading activity had slowed down ahead of the Christmas holiday period.

“The number of trades have been minimal.”

On the stock market, the benchmark NSE20 share index inched up, rising 8.81 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 3,995.09 points.

In the debt market, bonds worth 1.7 billion shillings were traded, compared to the previous day’s volume of 1 billion shillings.