Shilling Strengthens against other currencies

The Kenyan currency continues to hold its own against major currencies after rebounding from its lowest point ever in October 2011. It hit its nadir on October 22nd when it exchanged at Kshs 107 to the greenback.
It then recovered to hit 100 to the US dollar and measured 91.45 against a basket case of 4 major currencies. This basket case is a measure of the units of Kenya's major partners and contains the US dollar, the Sterling pound, the euro and the yen weighting according to trading importance.
The shilling measured 86.53 against the same currencies in September.
On October 26th, a basket case of regional currencies read 8.68 as compared to 8.36 hit on September 22nd. This case holds the South African Rand, the United Arab Emirates' dirham and the 2 East African currencies, the Ugandan and Tanzanian shillings.
The Kenya shilling read 76.27 against the regional currencies on 25th January 2011. These represent a gain of 16.6% and 14.5% respectively on the 2 basket cases.
This has in turn been a result of the treasury's intervention in the markets raising interest rates and also hounding out key players in the banking sector accused of hoarding foreign currencies. These include Equity Bank,Kenya Commercial Bank, Barclays Bank of Kenya, Standard Chartered Bank and Family Bank.


Forex: EUR/USD steadies above 1.3100

Fri, Feb 03 2012, 16:16 GMT
FXstreet.com (Córdoba) - As the dust settles after the surprisingly positive US payrolls report, EUR/USD consolidates above the 1.3100 mark. The pair bottomed at 1.3065 following the data and managed to bounce up although the 1.3130 area capped the recovery confining EUR/USD to sideways consolidation within the last hours.

At time of writing, EUR/USD is quoting around 1.3110, still down 0.3% on the day. The Euro is on track to close the week with modest losses, as despite several attempts to break and hold above 1.3200 within the last days, it has been constantly rejected from those levels.

In terms of technical levels, immediate supports are seen at 1.3070, 1.3020 and 1.2980, while next resistances could be found at 1.3140, 1.3185 and the 1.3200/10 area.