Nairobi - The Kenyan
shilling held steady against the dollar on Monday but was seen firming
on the back of sales of dollars by exporters and the central bank's
policy of regularly hoovering up of cash from the market.
At 0741 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 84.00/20 per dollar, the same level it closed at on Friday.
"We expect the shilling to trade within a range of 83.90-84.30
with a bias of further gains should demand (for dollars) fail to
materialise," Bank of Africa told clients in a research note on Monday.
The shilling has gained 1.2 percent this year due to the central
bank's tight monetary policy stance and analysts said it could touch
83.50 per dollar this week, helped by the central bank mopping up
liquidity.
Traders said they expected the central bank to continue to soak
up liquidity via repurchase agreements after the interbank interest rate
fell to 9.4 percent on Friday from 10.0 percent the previous day.
"The central bank will continue mopping up to support the
currency. Liquidity has increased because of government maturities ...
about 30 billion shillings in debt is expected to mature this month,"
said a trader at one commercial bank in Nairobi.
-Reuters