NAIROBI: Kenya' shilling weakened on Wednesday on dollar buying by companies before a two-day break for the Christmas holiday, while telecoms firm Safaricom helped lift stocks.
The shilling closed at 90.55/65 to the dollar, weaker than Tuesday's close of 90.45/55.
Nahashon Mungai, a trader at Kenya Commercial Bank, said the local currency fell on pent-up dollar demand that had started on Tuesday and trickled into the market again on Wednesday.
Mungai said some traders were also buying dollars to cover their positions before the Christmas holiday.
A trader at another commercial bank said the shilling could weaken "in the last two weeks of the year" as firms buy dollars to strengthen their foreign currency positions by year-end.
The foreign exchange and stock markets will be closed on Thursday and Friday and will re-open on Monday.
On the Nairobi Securities Exchange, the main NSE-20 Share Index rose 1.3 percent to close at 4,971.76 points.
Safaricom, Kenya's largest telecoms firm and the bourse's biggest stock by market capitalisation, rose 0.7 percent in volumes about a third of the market's usual trading volumes. Safaricom's shares have risen 29 percent this year.
On the debt market, government bonds worth 2.57 billion shillings ($28.41 million) were traded, down from 5.54 billion shillings on Tuesday.
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