NAIROBI: The Kenyan shilling firmed on Friday, helped by subdued corporate dollar demand and sales of the US currency by companies seeking funds for tax payments next week.
The main share index was little changed.
At the close of trade, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 95.85/95 to the dollar, from 96.15/25 at Thursday's close.
"We have the fact that next week corporates will be paying their taxes. So you find that now corporate demand might ease as they collect shillings to meet their tax obligations," a senior trader at one commercial bank said.
The trader said after the tax payments, the shilling would be under pressure due to renewed dollar demand from importers.
In the stock market, the benchmark NSE-20 share index edged up 1 point to close at 4,980.71 points.
Daniel Kuyoh, a research analyst at Kingdom Securities, said the index was likely to get shallow support at those levels.
"We should see some momentum in the coming week, albeit some weak support as supply forces remain stronger," Kuyoh said.
Foreign investors have been selling their shares after locking in their dividends for the last year. Some have also been selling due to worries about the weakening currency.
In the debt market, bonds worth 7 billion shillings ($73 million) were traded during the week, up from the previous week's volume of 4.5 billion shillings.
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