Kenya Shilling Slightly Weakened against Major Currencies

By Amina Faki,

The Kenya shilling continued to come under pressure slightly weakening against three major currencies by 1.27 percent, 6.89 percent, and 9.89 percent against the US Dollar, Sterling Pound, and the Euro due to a slowdown in foreign activity.

Activity in equities soared 454 percent extending the week’s marginal uptrend to 30.1 million US Dollars amounting to 3,121.6 million shillings from yesterday’s trading. The major benchmarks closed marginally higher.

The market was dominated by the local trading, at 88 percent of market activity due to a large cross trade of 2.6 billion shillings on Equity Group Holdings Ltd. (NSE: EQTY), which accounted for 82 percent of market turnover.

Foreign participation slowed to account for 11.5 percent of total market activity with buying the interest in Safaricom Ltd. (NSE: SCOM) and Nairobi Securities Exchange Ltd. (NSE: NSE).

NSE 20 and NASI indices gained 0.33 percent and 0.10 percent to close at 3,580.52 million shillings and 151.50 million shillings respectively.

Accumulative activities continued on Equity Group Holdings Ltd. (NSE: EQTY), now for 12 sessions consecutively. Foreigners were more balanced in trading on Thursday.

Secondary market turnover closed at 1.3 billion shillings, 46.8 percent lower than the previous session, with 55 deals compared to 118 previously, driven by infrastructure bonds and short-dated issues.