NAIROBI: The Kenyan shilling was little changed on Monday as tight liquidity continued to lend support to the local currency. Stocks inched lower.
At the 1300 GMT close, banks quoted the shilling at 91.70/75 to the dollar, barely changed from Friday's close of 91.70/80.
A trader at one Nairobi-based commercial bank said the shilling was stuck in a five cent range throughout the day, trading in low volumes amid a shortage of the local currency.
"The money market is tight, there was a bit of selling (of dollars) in the morning. But it's not moved the shilling."
"It's taking a breather before it makes its next move, either higher or lower," said the trader, referring to the shilling.
Martin Runo, senior trader at Chase Bank, said the tight liquidity could offer a cushion to the shilling in coming days.
The market has experienced tight liquidity arising from payments from last week's Treasury bills and bonds sales, which were worth a total 26.6 billion shillings ($290 million).
Tight shilling liquidity makes it more expensive to hold long dollar positions, which partly supports the shilling.
Traders said they expect the shilling, which has lost 1.6 percent against the dollar so far this year, to trade in the 91.50 to 92.50 range in coming days.
On the equity market, the benchmark NSE 20 index fell slightly by 0.15 percent to 5,209.84 points.
In the secondary debt market, bonds worth 762 million shillings ($8.30 million) were traded, up from 295 million shillings on Friday.
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