The Kenya shilling clawed back losses against the dollar after the central bank stepped in to support the local currency but dealers said on Friday they remained bearish about the shilling's prospects. The shilling slid to an eight-month low on Thursday after days of depreciation as the meltdown in the international markets spilled over into Kenyan markets.
The banks quoted the local unit at 72.10/20 from Thursday's 72.80/90. It had briefly broken the 74.00 level on Thursday. "The central bank is in the market. They are auctioning $10 million," a dealer at Barclays Bank said.
The central bank sold a similar amount on Thursday. "The monetary authorities injected $10 million, which was in many respect minuscule, but enough to send signals to that market to go slow on dollar buying," a market report by the Commercial Bank of Africa said. Dealers said sentiment for the shilling was bearish because of low dollar inflows.
Comments
Comments are closed.