Kenyan Shilling Sturdy as Central Bank Mops Up Liquidity

Currency

The Kenyan Shilling remained relatively sturdy during a thin trading session on Tuesday. The USDKES posted marginal gains of 0.04%, whilst slight weakening of 0.11% and 0.09% was reported against the Euro and Sterling Pound, respectively. The Central Bank sought to mop up KES 20 billion from the money market today -signalling that there was excess liquidity in the money market -this is likely to provide support to the Kenyan Shilling in the coming days. Meanwhile, the local unit maintained a comparative advantage against a cluster of its regional peers (ZAR, TZS, UGX); in today’s trade the strongest gain was reported against the South African Rand – as the KES edged up by 0.51%.

Foreign Investor Participation (as of 28th December)

Foreign participation was mellow in a quiet trading session at the Nairobi Stock Exchange on Monday. Foreigners accounted for 47.78% of total NSE turnover, whilst local participants accounted for the remaining 53.22%. Accumulative activities dominated the day’s trading session, resulting in net inflows worth KES 67.28Mn relative to KES 2.40Mn net outflows on Thursday.

Foreign investors accounted for 47.78% of the NSE turnover as compared to 63.94% on Thursday. Foreign investors engaged in net accumulative activities, resulting in net inflows worth KES 67.28Mn.

Equity Holdings Limited (NSE: EQTY) was the day’s highest traded stock, recording a turnover of KES 84.25Mn to account for 36.57% of total market activity and 78.18% of foreign investor activity, followed by Kenya Commercial Bank Limited (NSE: KCB) which posted a turnover of KES 19.36Mn representing 8.40% of total market activity and 17.96% of foreign investor activity

Equity Holdings Limited (NSE: EQTY) posted the day’s highest net inflows worth KES 83.97Mn and the day’s highest net outflows, worth KES 19.36Mn, were posted by Kenya Commercial Bank Limited (NSE: KCB).