RTRS:Kenya shilling down 1.4 pct vs dollar, seen falling
NAIROBI (Reuters) - The Kenyan shilling weakened 1.4 percent against the dollar on Monday, as importers took advantage of last week's shilling gains and bought greenbacks, and traders said the local currency could fall further in the session.
The shilling gained 7.5 percent last week from a record low of 107 per dollar hit on October 11 as commercial banks sold dollars after the central bank lowered the amount of foreign exchange they could hold and the regulator mopped up liquidity through repurchase agreements.
At 0627 GMT, leading commercial banks quoted the shilling at 100.70/101.10 against the dollar, weaker than Friday's close of 99.45/65.
"There is a bit of corporate clients buying dollars after the gains we saw on Friday. We may see a correction (weakening) today," said a senior trader at one commercial bank.
Market players said they did not expect the deployment of Kenyan troops inside Somalia to hunt down al Qaeda-linked rebels to impact the market immediately.
"It will depend with the level of attack that we launch into Somalia. At the moment it looks like it's just (a small amount of) troops targeted toward the al Shabaab," said the senior trader.
Dealers do, however, see the central bank mopping up more shillings this week after central banks from across the region said they would coordinate a tightening of liquidity to curb exchange rate volatility.
The Central Bank of Kenya mopped up 2.45 billion shillings last week, well below the 30 billion shillings it had targeted, as banks held back their bids.