Uganda shilling flat vs dollar, T bill sale eyed

KAMPALA: The Uganda shilling traded flat against the dollar on Wednesday as the market awaited results of a Treasury bil
16 Nov, 2011

At 1015 GMT commercial banks quoted the local currency at 2,588/2,598 against the dollar, little changed on Tuesday's close of 2,585/2,595.

"The market's eyes are on the results," said Ahmed Kalule, treasury dealer at Bank of Africa.

"I think the slight slide reflects some worries the securities might be heavily oversubscribed in which case investors would have to buy back their dollars which could put the shilling under pressure."

The central Bank of Uganda is auctioning bills of all maturities for a total of 120 billion shillings.

The central bank has raised its benchmark lending rate by 10 percentage points to 23 percent since introducing the rate in July, driving up yields on government securities and helping move the shilling off its record low.

The shilling has gained 10.6 percent against the dollar since striking its Sep. 23 all-time record low of 2,901 but is still 10 percent down in the year to date.

Copyright Reuters, 2011

Read Comments