Kenya shilling slips as importers seek dollars, shares dip
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's shilling weakened on Wednesday as some importers sought dollars now based on expectations that the U.S. currency would cost more later in the month. Shares drifted lower. By the close of trading, the shilling was quoted at 93.45/55 to the dollar, compared with 90.30/50 on Tuesday. The shilling has declined steadily in the past few sessions, touching fresh lows not seen since November 2011. Traders said they expected it to fall further, unless the central bank offered support with dollar sales as it did last Tuesday. "The shilling has been trading on weaker sentiment," said Martin Runo, a senior trader at Chase Bank, citing factors such as a spate of Islamist militant attacks that have hammered tourism, usually a valuable source of foreign exchange. Global dollar strength has also hurt the currency. Runo said some importers, who usually tend to wait till later in the month to purchase dollars, had been seeking the U.S. currency earlier than usual to avoid paying more later. Echoing other traders who also saw the shilling extending losses, Runo said it could hit 93.85 to the dollar this week. On the shares market, the benchmark NSE 20 index dipped 2.0 points to close at 5,126.02 points. Analysts noted quieter trading, with the value of shares exchanged dipping to 401.2 million shillings ($4 million) from 692.5 million shillings on Tuesday. In the secondary bond market, bonds worth 1.07 billion shillings were traded, down from 1.90 billion shillings the previous session. ...........................Shilling spot rates .....................Shilling forward rates .......................Cross rates ..................................Local contributors .......................Central Bank of Kenya Index .....................Kenyan Bonds contributor pages ...............Treasury bill yields ..................Central bank open market operations .........................Horizontal repo transactions ,................Daily interbank lending rate .............................Kenya Bond pricing ..................Real time Africa economic data ...........................African economic news .................................NSE-20 Share Index .................................NSE All Share Index ...........................FT NSE Kenya 15 Index .......................... FT NSE Kenya 25 Index SPEED GUIDES: ($1 = 93.4000 Kenyan shillings)
