Thursday, 24 September 2015 00:20
NAIROBI: The Kenyan shilling firmed slightly on Wednesday after the central bank injected dollars to the market to counter pressure from its decision to hold rates the previous day.
The blue chip share index edged down.
At the 1330 GMT close of trade, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 105.55/65 per dollar, slightly up from Tuesday’s closing rate of 105.70/80.
Traders attributed the firming to the central bank’s sale of dollars, through brokers, after the shilling weakened to 105.90 in the early hours of trading.
“They came in at 105.90 and they kept on selling until it went back to 105.50,” said a trader with a commercial bank.
The injection of dollars by the central bank was confirmed by a second trader.
Policymakers held the benchmark lending rate for the second time in a row on Tuesday, saying previous tightening had helped to lower inflation towards the bank’s medium term target of 5 percent.
In the stock market, the benchmark NSE-20 share index inched down 0.12 percent to close at 4,207.27 points.
Like other frontier stocks, Kenyan shares have been under pressure this year as investors seek less risky assets, anticipating a US rate rise.
In the debt market, bonds worth 401 million shillings were traded, up from a volume of 74 million shillings the previous session.
