NAIROBI, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The Kenyan shilling
held
steady against the dollar on Friday, but traders said the localcurrency's outlook remained bearish in the days ahead due toimporter demand for the greenback.
At 0716 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at85.05/25 to the dollar, barely changed from Thursday's close of85.10/30.
"It looks a bit quiet for now, but we could see a bit morepressure on the shilling from importers ... pushing it to its85.50 support," said Julius Kiriinya, a trader at AfricanBanking Corporation.
Traders see the shilling weakening in the medium term as anaggressive rate-cutting cycle filters through the economy andamid political uncertainty as the east African nation headstowards a general election in March 2013, the first sincenationwide violence in 2007.
The central bank has cut the benchmark rate
twice since July by a total 500 basis points to 13 percent,after holding at an ultra-high 18 percent for seven straightmonths to reign in inflation and foreign currency volatility.
...........................Shilling spot rates
.....................Shilling forward rates
.......................Cross rates
..................................Local contributors
.......................Central Bank of Kenya Index
.....................Kenyan Bonds contributor pages
...............Treasury bill yields
..................Central bank open market operations
.........................Horizontal repo transactions
,
................Daily interbank lending rate
.............................Kenya Bond pricing
..................Real time Africa economic data
...........................African economic news
.................................NSE-20 Share Index
.................................NSE All Share Index
...........................FT NSE Kenya 15 Index
.......................... FT NSE Kenya 25 Index
SPEED GUIDES:
(Reporting by Kevin Mwanza; Editing by Richard Lough)
((nairobi.newsroom@reuters.com)(Tel: +254 20 2224717))
Keywords: KENYA MARKETS/