NAIROBI, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Kenya shilling strengthened against the U.S. dollar on Monday as the market weathered political bickering over fresh presidential polls scheduled for Oct. 17.
The shilling traded against the dollar at a high of 102.8, a gain from 103.00 at the end of last week.
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) on Monday placed the value of the local unit at 102.89, which was a rise of 0.34 percent from the over 103.00 last week.
On the other hand, commercial banks quoted the value of the shilling against the dollar at between 102.75 and 102.85 as traders noted the currency would continue to hold steady due to rise in dollar inflows.
On Monday, however, as the shilling steadied against the dollar, it weakened against the British pound by 0.85 percent to close at 135.85.
The Kenya shilling appreciated against the dollar by 0.1 percent last week to close at 103 from 103.1 the previous week, primarily due to dollar inflows from foreign investors to the local equity and debt markets.
"In our view, the shilling should remain relatively stable to the dollar in the short term, supported by CBK's activity as they have sufficient forex reserves, currently at 7.5 billion dollars (equivalent to 5.0 months of import cover), but we have seen the reserves decline significantly from 8.3 billion dollars at the peak in April this year, but not to a worrying level, as import cover currently stands at five months," Cytonn, a Nairobi-based investment firm, said in a report Monday.
