NAIROBI: The Kenyan shilling was steady against the dollar on Friday as greenback inflows from aid agencies were matched by interbank demand and traders said they expected the local currency to firm by the end of session.
At 0730 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 92.40/60 against the dollar, unchanged from Thursday's close.
"We've seen a bit of dollar supply from the non-governmental organisations but they are evenly matched with interbank demand. There is not much interest at the moment," said Duncan Kinuthia, head of trading at Commercial Bank of Africa.
Some traders expected the shilling to break through the 92.00 shilling resistance level on Friday, helped by banks cutting long greenback positions in the face of a shilling liquidity crunch and importers holding back dollars orders.
"As we move higher, importers prefer to stay out, expecting a cheaper dollar," said Kinuthia.
The shilling has firmed 13.6 percent from its all-time low of 107 hit on Oct. 11, after the central bank raised its key lending rate sharply to 16.5 percent on Nov. 1, to fight inflation and exchange rate volatility.
The bank is set to hold its next Monetary Policy Committee meeting on Dec. 2.
Banks competing for shillings on the money market following an acute liquidity crunch pushed the interbank rate to 29.7044 percent on Thursday from 29.3089 percent the previous day, but off a four-year high of 30.8172 hit on Monday.
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