Kenyan shares extend gains, shilling steady

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan shares inched up for a second session on Friday, buoyed by foreign investors picking up equities, while the shilling was steady against the dollar.

The benchmark NSE-20 Share Index inched up 0.2 percent to close at 3,831.01 point.

"Foreign investors are coming back into the major counters. It's a buyers market," said Mwenda Rarama, an analyst at Kingdom Securities.

Standard Chartered Bank of Kenya gained 2.6 percent to 198 shillings a share, while Nation Media Group rose 1.1 percent to finish at 179 shillings. Both firms posted growth in their half year earnings.

In the foreign exchange market, the shilling closed at 84.00/20 per dollar at the 1300 GMT close of trade, the same level it closed at on Thursday.

"The shilling is poised for gains in coming days as customer demand (for dollars) has subsided," said Duncan Kinuthia, head of trading at Commercial Bank of Africa. "We also expect good flows from exporters."

Traders said the shilling, which has gained 1.2 percent this year due to the central bank's tight monetary policy stance, could touch 83.50 per dollar next week.

During Friday's session, the central bank mopped up 2 billion shillings via repurchase agreements, after it received bids worth 6.2 billion for the 2 billion shillings it had offered.

In the bond market, government and corporate bonds worth 1.6 billion shillings were traded, down from 2.5 billion shillings on Thursday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kenyan-shares-extend-gains-shilling-steady-145614215--finance.html

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