NAIROBI: The Kenyan shilling lost ground on Tuesday, hurt by dollar demand from corporates, while stocks fell.
At the 1300 GMT market close, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 90.45/55 to the dollar amid thin volumes, weaker than Monday's close of 90.25/45.
Nahashon Mungai, a trader at Kenya Commercial Bank, said late dollar demand from large companies put pressure on the shilling after a fairly subdued session.
"Towards the evening, a little bit of demand caused the shilling to weaken abruptly to close at 90.45/55," he said.
"Because there is such low trading volume, any sort of interest either way can push the currency to either side."
Traders said most businesses and non-governmental organisations that need to exchange foreign currency closed down for the year last week.
On the Nairobi Securities Exchange, the main NSE-20 Share Index fell 0.1 percent to close at 4907.27 points.
On the debt market, government bonds worth 5.54 billion shillings ($61.33 million) were traded, up/down from 2.80 billion shillings on Monday.
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