The Kenyan Shilling strengthened 0.89 percent year-to-date against the dollar. It also strengthened 11.89 percent year- to-date against the Sterling Pound while against the Euro it weakened 1.26% year-to-date.
Last week, ending July, the Shilling depreciated against the dollar by 0.3%, to close at 101.4, compared to 101.1 in June.
According to Cytonn investments, this was mainly driven by dollar demand from importers but, was supported by the Central Bank intervention in the foreign exchange market through the sale of dollars resulting in a drop in dollar reserves to USD 7.8 bn from USD 7.9 bn at the beginning of July. The analysts expect the shilling to remain stable for the remainder of the year supported by (i) the high levels of foreign exchange reserves equivalent to 5.1 months of import cover, and (ii) improved diaspora remittances, with cumulative 12 months’ diaspora inflows to June 2016 increasing by 11.0% to USD 1.7 bn from USD 1.5 bn in the year to June 2015.
Kenyan Stock Market
Market turnover at the bourse recorded 101.3 percent jump to 746.75 MN (USD 7.36 MN) from Friday’s trading.
The NSE 20 index declined 0.80 percent to close at 3,460.60 while NASI index rose 0.37 percent to close at 142.91.
Foreign investors assumed a net buying position by accounting for 81.0% of total market purchases and 60.7 percent of total market sales.
EAC Markets
In Rwanda, the RSE RSI and RSE ALSI lost 3.3% and 0.4% respectively to to close at 135.04 and 129.10.
In Uganda, the USE ALSI rose 0.05% to close at 1,675.67 while USE LSI dropped 0.04% to close at 390.10.