UPDATE 1-Kenyan shilling strengthens on bank selling, shares dip

africatodayonline.blogspot.com -

Fri Nov 29, 2013 10:44am EST

• Tweet


• Share this




• Email


• Print

(Adds closing rate, shares)
    NAIROBI, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Kenya's shilling firmed
on Friday after banks unwound long dollar positions, while the
stock market fell after six straight sessions that had sent it
to a five-year high.
    At the close of trade at 1300 GMT, commercial banks quoted
the shilling at 86.45/65 to the dollar, compared with Thursday's
close of 87.00/10, hovering near the two-month low of 87.20 it
reached on Sept 27.
    Traders had earlier on Friday expected the shilling to trade
in an 86.60 to 87.20 range.
    However, they became jittery about holding long dollar
positions after the central bank made a round of calls to banks
enquiring why the shilling was weakening, traders said. No one
at the central bank was available to comment. 
    "Everybody was trying to be the first one to sell. The
market was a bit jittery the central bank would sell dollars,"
said Ignatius Chicha, treasurer at Citibank Kenya.
    The overnight borrowing rate had tumbled this week, causing
the shilling to weaken as banks found it slightly easier to fund
long dollar positions. 
     Kenya's main share index eased off the new five-year high
it hit on Thursday in light trading as U.S. financial markets
had a half-day session on Friday after closing for the
Thanksgiving holiday.
    "It shows how strong a role foreigners have on our market,"
said Augustine Misoka, a trader at Sterling Investment Bank.
    Shares favoured by foreign investors, including telecoms and
insurance stocks led losses on the stock market. 
    Bourse heavyweight and telecoms operator Safaricom 
fell 2.27 percent to close at 10.80 shillings a share on light
volume of 87 million shares, while insurer and diversified
financial services firm British American fell 9.8
percent to 14.25 per share.
    Investors nibbled at other equities, but overall the Nairobi
Securities Exchange main NSE-20 Share Index closed
36.33 points or 0.70 percent lower at 5100.88 points. 
               ..........................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 
 <ECI & AFR> ..........................African economic news
          ................................NSE-20 Share Index
         ................................NSE All Share Index
             ..........................FT NSE Kenya 15 Index
             ......................... FT NSE Kenya 25 Index
 SPEED GUIDES:                                    
            
  

 (Reporting by James Macharia; Editing by Catherine Evans)

FILED UNDER:

Telecommuncations Services

• Tweet this


• Link this


• Share this


• Digg this


• Email


• Print


• Reprints

Comments (0)

This discussion is now closed. We welcome comments on our articles for a limited period after their publication.