NAIROBI: The Kenyan shilling held steady on Wednesday, but was expected to come under pressure on increased liquidity in the money markets and demand from the energy sector, traders said.
At 0907 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 86.35/45 to the dollar, the same as Tuesday's close.
Traders said the shilling could be cushioned by tea dollar sales, and that it had already priced in Tuesday's hold in the central bank's key lending rate.
"Anything other than the hold would have now moved the market in either direction. But it was a hold, it was factored in," said a senior trader at one commercial bank.
"Liquidity is good, the supply is good... we are seeing good demand from the energy sector."
Signalling increased liquidity in the money markets, the weighted average interbank lending rate dropped to 6.7704 percent on Tuesday from 7.7604 percent a day before.
Traders said the tea dollars coming in since Tuesday would lead to "good support" for the shilling Peter Mutuku, head of trading at Bank of Africa, said.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.