NAIROBI: The Kenyan shilling held steady against the dollar on Monday, and traders said they expected the currency to come under pressure from importers in the run-up to the end of the month, with all eyes on the central bank's efforts to mop up liquidity.
At 0715 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 87.30/50 against the dollar, barely changed from Friday's close of 87.35/55.
"We are at mid-month and some importer dollar demand may crop up putting pressure on the shilling," said Julius Kiriinya, a trader at African Banking Corporation.
"We are waiting to see if central bank comes in as they have been doing. That may support the shilling a bit."
The Central Bank of Kenya has mopped up a total of 21.2 billion shillings ($242 million) through repurchase agreements and sold an unspecified amount of dollars this month
Those actions stemmed a fall in shilling, which is still down nearly 3 percent against the dollar this year.
Policymakers have been keen to stay ahead of the curve to avoid last year's scenario when it was heavily criticised for failing to take early action to support the shilling, letting it lose more than a quarter of its valued to hit 107 per dollar in October.
The shilling rallied after policymakers adopted an aggressive monetary tightening stance, raising its benchmark rate four times to 18 percent in December. They left the rate unchanged at the January policy meeting.
Market participants said they expected the shilling to trade in the 87.00-88.00 range against the dollar for the Monday's session.
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