NAIROBI: Kenya's shilling closed a touch weaker on Tuesday after a late flurry of dollar demand from the energy sector, while stock rose.
At market close of 1300 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 97.25/45 to the dollar, compared with Monday's close of 97.25/35. In afterhours trading the shilling weakened further, to 97.40/60.
"In the last hour or so we have seen quite a bit of demand from the energy sector," a trader at one Nairobi-based commercial bank said.
Traders said activity had been slow due to many companies preparing to pay their shilling-denominated taxes, which had also contributed to tight liquidity in the market.
"I think the market is preparing for end-month demand to start coming in," a trader at another commercial bank said.
On the Nairobi Securities Exchange, the main Share Index was up 13.65 points, or 0.3 percent, to close at 4,773.23 points.
On the secondary market, 1.3 billion shillings ($13.36 million) worth of government bonds were traded, up from 311.4 million shillings on Monday.
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