Kenyan Shilling Out of the Woods and Gaining Traction on the US Dollar

The Kenyan Shilling seems to have emerged out of the woods and has started gaining traction against the US Dollar, the Sterling Pound, and the Euro.

The shilling which has been facing the rainy days in the last five months started picking up after the Supreme Court of Kenya upheld the reelection of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

On Friday, the shilling strengthened against the US Dollar by 0.12 percent from Thursday’s trading to close the day at 103.26 shillings. On a year to date basis, however, the shilling was still low at 0.76 percent.

The shillings also strengthened against the Sterling Pound by 0.05 percent compared to Thursday to close the day at 137.43 shillings. On a year to date basis, the shilling was low by 9.58 percent.

The shillings, however, weakened against the Euro by 0.44 percent from Thursday to close the day at 122.29 shillings. The shilling was also low by 14.23 percent on a year to date basis.

On the Kenyan Stock Market, the market turnover dropped by 54.8 percent to USD 3.67 million or an equivalent 379.5 million shillings from Thursday’s trading.

The NSE 20 and NASI gained 0.16 percent and 0.32 percent to close the day at 3,833.00 and 168.43 respectively.

Foreign investors, on the other hand, assumed a net buying position by accounting for 37.9 percent of total market purchases and 23.1 percent of total market sales.

On the East African Community Markets, in Rwanda, the RSE RSI and RASI declined 0.33 percent and 0.05 percent to close the day at 131.88 and 132.98 respectively.

In Uganda, the USE ALSI went up 0.17 percent to close the day at 1,780.65 while USE LCI remained at 381.24.