(Adds closing price, stocks)     NAIROBI, May 8 (Reuters) - Importer demand for dollars weakened Kenya's shilling on Thursday, but expectations the central bank would sell hard currency if the shilling falls much further was seen stemming further losses.     Commercial banks priced the shilling at 87.10/20 at the 1300 GMT market close, 0.1 percent down on Wednesday.     "We expect an 87.00-87.40 range in the short term," one trader in the market said, adding that the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) had previously intervened around 87.30 or 87.50. "We should expect the CBK to act, going beyond the mop-ups and selling dollars in the market."     The regulator has frequently siphoned off excess liquidity this year to help shore up the shilling, which traders say has been put under sustained pressure by weak dollar inflows from the tea, coffee and tourism industries.     Tourism numbers have been hurt by a series of gun and bomb attacks blamed on Islamist militants, including the September assault on an upscale Nairobi shopping mall that killed 67 people. Weekend bomb attacks in Nairobi and Mombasa rattled market confidence again.     On the benchmark NSE 20 Share Index  
  NSE20
  , Equity bank  
  EQTY.NR
   led shares higher as foreign investors bet on a continuation of strong first quarter earnings.     Equity, Kenya's largest lender by depositors, extended a month-long rally to hit and intra-day high of 42 shillings per share, a record high since the bank carried out a share split in 2009. It closed up 3.8 percent at 41.25 shillings.      Ronald Lugalia, an analyst at Nairobi-based AIB Capital, said speculation rather than a shift in the bank's fundamentals was driving the rally. "Foreign investors are buying," Lugalia said.     Equity posted a 21 percent jump in first-quarter pretax profit in its first quarter, although profit growth was curbed by rising bad debts and conflict in neighbouring South Sudan where the bank has operations.  
  ID:nL6N0LW08G
          
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  KES1=
  ...........................Shilling spot rates    
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  .....................Shilling forward rates    
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  .......................Cross rates    
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  ..................................Local contributors    
  CBKINDEX
  .......................Central Bank of Kenya Index    
  KE/DEBT
  .....................Kenyan Bonds contributor pages    
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  KE3MTB=
  ...............Treasury bill yields    
  CBK04
  ..................Central bank open market operations    
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  .........................Horizontal repo transactions    
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  , 
  CBK02
  ................Daily interbank lending rate    
  0#KETSYSTR=
  .............................Kenya Bond pricing    
  ECONAFRICA
  ..................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
      (Reporting by Richard Lough and George Obulutsa; Editing by Larry King)  ((george.obulutsa@thomsonreuters.com)(Tel: +254 20 221 4608)(Reuters Messaging: george.obulutsa.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))  Keywords: KENYA MARKETS/