* Shilling seen firming due to inflows into bonds
* Shares fall for seven straight sessions
(Adds markets close, stocks)
By Kevin Mwanza
NAIROBI, April 22 (Reuters) - Kenya's main share index
fell for the seventh straight session to a four-week
low, weighed down by profit taking after a post election rally,
while the shilling was steady.
The benchmark NSE-20 share index fell 0.6 percent to
4,839.49 points, a level last reached on March 27.
The index has declined about 4 percent since April 11,
mainly due to investors taking profits following a 12 percent
rally that followed a largely peaceful election. The index is
still up 18 percent so far this year.
"Pronounced selling pressure across the bourse has pushed
the index lower," said Ronald Lugalia, an analyst at Afrika
Investment Bank. "But the bear-run could be checked by investors
positioning for first quarter (company) results."
Nation Media Group, the region's leading media
house, dropped a further 3.1 percent to 278 shillings a share.
It has lost a third of its value since April 12 after going
ex-dividend and shedding rights to a 1-for-5 bonus issue.
In the foreign exchange market, the shilling was posted at
83.80/84.00 per dollar at the 1300 GMT close, barely changed
from Friday's close of 83.85/84.05.
Traders said they expected the local currency to gain from
offshore investors buying into Treasury bonds on sale later this
week.
"The biggest factor this week is the bond auction. A lot of
dollar inflows are expected from that," said Sheikh Mehran, a
senior trader at Kenya Commercial Bank.
"We saw some foreign sellers in the market from mid last
week and we expect that to continue."
The central bank is scheduled to auction five-year and
15-year Treasury bonds worth up to 25 billion shillings ($298.3
million) on Wednesday.
Investors have piled into Kenyan assets in recent weeks
after the country held a peaceful presidential election on March
4, a contrast to the previous poll five years ago that resulted
in post-election violence after the results were disputed.
Yields on government securities rose in the run-up to the
vote because of concerns about a repeat of the unrest of 2008.
The shilling has firmed 2.7 percent so far this year mainly
due to the calm vote.
In the debt market, bonds worth 1.78 billion shillings were
traded, slightly lower than Friday's from 1.79 billion
shillings.
