NAIROBI, April 1 (Reuters) - The Kenyan shillingKES= was steady on Tuesday and traders said they expected the local currency to trade in a narrow range in coming days. At 0843 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 86.35/45 to the dollar, compared with Monday's close of 86.30/40. Traders said they forecast the shilling to trade in the 86.20 to 86.80 range. "We are still seeing a lot of buying interest at below 86.40. I guess that now creates a buffer," said Duncan Kinuthia, head of trading at Commercial Bank of Africa. Kinuthia said those buying the dollar whenever the shilling strengthened were mostly from the telecoms and energy sectors, while the dollar inflows were also coming from offshore investors buying stocks and government securities. Traders said in the longer-term the shilling is likely to come under pressure from a weakening tourism sector, a key foreign exchange earner that has been hurt by high-profile bombings and attacks, mostly blamed on Somali Islamists. Multiple explosions in Kenya's capital Nairobi killed six people and wounded several others on Monday evening.ID:nL5N0MS4KT President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday said the country's tourism sector was "on its knees" after attacks by Somali group al Shabaab. At least 67 people were killed when al Shabaab gunmen attacked a Nairobi shopping mall last September.ID:nL5N0MP484 A senior trader at one commercial bank said Monday's blast did not immediately impact the shilling but added that an expected decline in tourist numbers "will work negatively for the shilling" over the long term.KES= KES1= ...........................Shilling spot ratesKESF= 0#KESF= .....................Shilling forward ratesEURKES= KESX= KESX1= .......................Cross ratesKES=KE ..................................Local contributorsCBKINDEX .......................Central Bank of Kenya IndexKE/DEBT .....................Kenyan Bonds contributor pagesCBK03 CBK06 KE3MTB= ...............Treasury bill yieldsCBK04 ..................Central bank open market operationsCBK07 .........................Horizontal repo transactionsKEIBR= ,CBK02 ................Daily interbank lending rate0#KETSYSTR= .............................Kenya Bond pricingECONAFRICA ..................Real time Africa economic data <ECI & AFR> ...........................African economic news.NSE20 .................................NSE-20 Share Index.NASI .................................NSE All Share Index.FTFNKEN1 ...........................FT NSE Kenya 15 Index.FTFNKEN2 .......................... FT NSE Kenya 25 Index SPEED GUIDES:REUTERS KES/1 KE/DEBT MONEY KE/EQUITY (Editing by Drazen Jorgic and Tom Heneghan) ((drazen.jorgic@thomsonreuters.com)(+254 202 224 717)(Reuters Messaging: drazen.jorgic.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: KENYA MARKETS/
Kenyan shilling holds steady, trend seen holding
NAIROBI, April 1 (Reuters) - The Kenyan shilling KES= was steady on Tuesday and traders said they expected the local currency to trade in a narrow range in coming days. At 0843 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 86.35/45 to the dollar, compared with Monday&aposs close of 86.30/40. Traders said they forecast the shilling to trade in the 86.20 to 86.80 range. "We
April 1, 2014




















