The Kenyan shilling weakened slightly on Wednesday due to dollar demand from the energy sector, while stocks broke a three-day rally to close lower. At close of trade, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 101.10/20 to the dollar, compared with Tuesday's close of 100.90/101.00. "It's slightly weaker. There was a bit of energy demand," said a senior trader at one commercial bank.
The shilling, which is down 10 percent against the dollar this year, has been stable this week on the back of a shortage of the local currency in the domestic money markets. The weighted average overnight interest rate for banks rose to 23.5842 percent on Tuesday from 23.0308 percent the previous day.