NAIROBI: The Kenyan shilling was barely moved on Friday but a lack of dollar inflows from hard currency earning sectors including tourism and tea led traders to forecast the local currency might resume its weakening trend.
The benchmark NSE-20 Share Index dipped 0.2 percent, to close at 4,901.12 points.
At the 1300 GMT market close, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 86.80/87.00 to the dollar, compared with Thursday's close of 86.90/87.00.
"The (dollar) supply side was constrained over the holiday period. Non-governmental organisations are still out and we haven't seen agricultural guys in the market," said a senior trader at one commercial bank.
Other traders anticipate dollar sales by exporters starting next week.
"What we are experiencing is a lack of dollar inflows ... It should continue into next week until we start seeing some good inflows coming in, maybe from the tea sector, the tourism sector," said Andlip Nazir, senior trader at I&M Bank.
The shilling is expected to trade in the 86.50 to 87.50 range in coming days, traders said, adding they expected activity to pick up next week.
On the Nairobi Securities Exchange, the main NSE-20 Share Index fell 9.62 points to close at 4,901.12 points despite a strong showing by some banks. Activity is seen picking up over the next two weeks, analysts said.
KCB closed the session up 0.5 percent at 48.00 shillings per share while Equity ended 2.4 percent higher at 31.75 shillings.
"KCB and Equity are experiencing a lot of foreign investor activity, they are the top banks and their fundamentals are strong," said Maureen Kirigua, a research analyst at Sterling Capital.
On the secondary market, government bonds valued at 38.3 million shillings were traded, down from 38 million shillings traded on Thursday.
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