Ugandan shilling a tad stronger before tax payments, Treasury auction

By Elias Biryabarema

KAMPALA, May 12 (Reuters) - The Ugandan shilling UGX= firmed slightly on Monday as corporate tax payments and possible inflows into a Treasury auction this week were expected to limit supply.

At 0851 GMT commercial banks quoted the shilling at 2,520/2,525, marginally stronger than Friday's close of 2,525/2,530.

"I would attribute the strengthening to tax payments which we expect to squeeze liquidity ... possibly the auction might also bring in flows," said Ahmed Kalule, a trader at Bank of Africa.

The central Bank of Uganda is due to sell 120 billion shillings' ($47.52 million) worth of Treasury bills of all maturities this week.

Faisal Bukenya, head of market making at Barclays Bank, said he expected the shilling to remain firm against the dollar for the rest of this week.

"Possibly after this week, once companies are done with tax payments we could see an uptick in (dollar) demand and some pressure on the shilling," he said.

The shilling has been largely stable this year, propped up by frequent liquidity mop-ups by the central bank.

UGX Spot Rate..... UGX=

Ugandan Shilling Money Guide.... UGX/1

Calculated Cross Rates.......... UGXX=

Deposits..................... UGXDEPO=

Deposits & Forwards............. UGXF=

Uganda Equities Guide....... UG/EQUITY

Uganda All Share Index........ .ALSIUG

Shilling background ..... UGX/BKGDINFO

Ugandan Debt Guide............ UG/DEBT

All Uganda Bonds............. 0#UGTSY=

Uganda T-Bills.............. 0#UGTSYS=