Thursday, June 26, 2014

Shilling weakens on tax payments, import demand

Money Markets
 
World Bank country director Diarietou Gaye and Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich at a past function. The World Bank has shaved 0.5 percentage points off its previous growth estimate six months ago. Photo/Salaton Nj
 
By John Gachiri

The shilling weakened slightly due to pressure by importers and tightening liquidity, which comes with the tax return season despite Kenya receiving Sh176 billion from the successful sale of a sovereign debt.
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The currency traded at Sh87.60-87.70 Tuesday, the third straight day it had lost ground against the dollar but foreign exchange traders said it would not slip below Sh88 in coming days.

“We expect the currency to range between 87.40 and 87.80 for the day,” said NIC Bank’s treasury desk in a morning report.
The report said that month-end demand from the energy sector as well as companies requiring funds to pay taxes had put pressure on the currency.
Analysts at Genghis Capital said that the successful sale of the Eurobond helped strengthen the shilling by calming investor nerves following last week’s terrorist attacks.
The Eurobond was oversubscribed by more than four times managing to attract bids worth $8.8 billion against the $1.5 billion it targeted to raise.
Analysts at the firm said that effects from the successful sale of the Eurobond should buffer the shilling from pressure due to tightening liquidity.

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