NAIROBI: The Kenyan shilling eased on Wednesday but remained within its recent ranges as market players traded cautiously wary of another central bank intervention.
The main shares index fell.
At the close of trade, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 92.70/75 to the dollar, from Tuesday's close of 92.55/65.
The shilling had hit an intraday low of 92.82/92 on Tuesday but recovered after the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) sold an unspecified amount of dollars to support the local currency.
Traders said the shilling was likely to trade in a tight band of 92.50-93.00 as the central bank keeps a watchful eye to ensure there was no volatility.
"It has been quiet since CBK entered the market yesterday," said Vimal Chudasama, trading manager at Chase Bank.
Hoteliers in a country that counts tourism as one of its major foreign exchange earners say visitors have cancelled bookings after the al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab gunmen killed 148 people during an attack at a university in the eastern town of Garissa on Thursday.
On the stock market, the main NSE-20 share index fell for the third straight session, shedding 0.7 percent to close at 5,142.35 points.
Limuru Tea plunged 11.65 percent to 993 shillings per share after the company said low tea prices hurt its 2014 pretax profit.
Bonds worth 1.3 billion shillings ($14 million) were traded on the debt market, down from a volume of 1.8 billion shillings in the previous session.
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