NAIROBI, June 19 (Reuters) - The Kenyan shilling <KES=>
slipped against the dollar on Thursday, reflecting increased
corporate appetite for the greenback and a bearish outlook for
the local unit, dealers said.
At 0949 GMT, commercial banks quoted the unit at 64.55/65 to
the dollar compared with Wednesday's close of 64.15/25.
"There is some kind of corporate demand. After the budget,
people have taken a negative view of the shilling. It may weaken
to below 65 in the coming days," said Stephen Lagat, a dealer at
CFC Stanbic Bank.
Kenya needs hard currency to import three million bags of
maize to plug a deficit of the staple.
Like other countries, it is also facing higher import bills
due to the rising price of crude oil.
Dealers said inflows of dollars were not robust compared to
demand for them by oil companies and other importers.
"We are not seeing much of inflows while we are seeing some
kind of demand from the oil sector," said Lagat.
Kenya is also suffering from the impact of a bloody
post-election crisis earlier this year, which hit various
sectors, particularly tourism.
"Tourism is still not going to recover for a while, flows
from horticulture are not as significant as they were last year.
There is nothing to warrant a bull run by the shilling," said
Andrea Balongo, a senior dealer at Kenya Commercial Bank.
He said, however, that a good outlook for the Nairobi Stock
Exchange <.NSEK> in the wake of the Safaricom <SCOM.NR> flotation might attract offshore investor interest, thus lending
support to the shilling.
"There is an up trend. Anyone out there who is looking at
emerging markets would consider this equities market," said
Balongo. "In terms of inflows, that is probably the only hope
the shilling is holding onto."
Dealers saw the local unit trading at 63.80-65.00 against
the dollar in the coming days.
<KES=> <KES1=>............Shilling spot rates
<KES=> <KES1=>............Shilling spot rates
<KESF=>...............Shilling forward rates
<EURKES=> <KESX=>.Cross rates
<KE/CONT1=>............All Kenya Contributors
<CBKINDEX>........Central Bank of Kenya Index
<KE/DEBT>......Kenyan Bonds contributor pages <CBK03> <CBK06> <KE3MTB=>.Treasury bill yields
<KEIBR=>,<CBK02>..Daily interbank lending rate
<0#KETSY=>...Kenya Bond pricing
SPEED GUIDES: <REUTERS> <KES/1> <KE/DEBT> <MONEY>
(Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Gerrard Raven)
(([email protected]; +254 20 222 4717))
Keywords: KENYA CURRENCY/