NAIROBI: The Kenyan shilling was steady on Friday and traders said they expected it to trade in a tight range with low volumes.
At 0742 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 88.60/70 per dollar, compared with Thursday's close of 88.60/70.
Traders said demand for the US currency was balanced by offshore banks sales and a liquidity mop-up by the Central Bank of Kenya on Thursday.
"I would say yesterday's action by the CBK to mop up excess liquidity in the market, that supported it against any weakening," Kenya Commercial Bank trader Nahashon Mungai said.
"Plus we have been seeing quite a bit of offshore banks selling dollars as well. So those two factors at the moment are supportive of the shilling."
But the shilling could still face weakness due to scant dollar inflows from sectors like tourism.
"Moving ahead we still expect the greenback to be more bid as importers continue to dominate the market, whereas the supply side still does not look promising," Bank of Africa said in its daily market report.
Traders said they forecast the shilling, which has lost 2.2 percent to the dollar so far this year, to trade in the 88.50 to 89.00 range in coming days.
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