Kenyan shilling mixed

The Kenya shilling oscillated versus the dollar in muted trade on Friday but is expected to make gains on the back of low dollar demand. The commercial banks quoted the unit at 79.50/60 from Thursday's 79.55/65 close. It made swings between 79.35 and 79.70 in earlier trade, dealers said.
"The market is fairly mixed. It is playing flows as they come," said Chris Rwengo, head of trading at Standard Chartered Bank. A government plan to import maize to plug a food deficit would not affect the exchange rate much, dealers said. "That has already been factored in the price," said Peter Njuguna, a senior trader at Commercial Bank of Africa, adding that he was bullish on the shilling going forward.