Shilling beats major currencies
Feb 04, 2005
The Ugandan shilling recorded new trading levels this week against all major currencies, trading at 1,690/1,720, the highest point in six months.
By Macrines Nyapendi
The Ugandan shilling recorded new trading levels this week against all major currencies, trading at 1,690/1,720, the highest point in six months.
“The market is dull with low demand. Students returning to school and heavy inflows from donors to Non-Governmental Organisations have boosted the local unit’s strength,†Steven Mwanje, the director of BM Forex, said.
Successive dollar purchase by the central bank from commercial banks on Friday last week restored stability that saw the dollar posted at 1,700/1,725 at the opening of this week’s trading.
Akash Kumar, Midland Group’s general manager attributed the shilling’s strength to duty payments.
He said, “Importers and corporates are not buying because they are paying duties.â€
The two European currencies were posted at 2,280/2,350 and 3,300/3,400 for buying and selling respectively at the close of last year’s trading session.
The local currency’s strength started mid last month, with the shilling gaining an average of sh5 against the dollar and sh10 against other major currencies daily.
The deficit of foreign currencies is normally filled with the intervention of the central bank in the local foreign exchange market.
By Wednesday morning, the pound sterling and Euro were posted at 3,150/3,280 and 2,140/2,270 for buying and selling respectively, against the shilling.
“We are cautious of our transactions because the dollar is very volatile. The central bank intervened in the market on Friday, but the impact was not that big. Now they seem unbothered about what is going on,†Mwanje said.
The spread between buying and selling has widened to over sh30.
The spread is the margin between the buying and selling of currencies.
Ends
The Ugandan shilling recorded new trading levels this week against all major currencies, trading at 1,690/1,720, the highest point in six months.
“The market is dull with low demand. Students returning to school and heavy inflows from donors to Non-Governmental Organisations have boosted the local unit’s strength,†Steven Mwanje, the director of BM Forex, said.
Successive dollar purchase by the central bank from commercial banks on Friday last week restored stability that saw the dollar posted at 1,700/1,725 at the opening of this week’s trading.
Akash Kumar, Midland Group’s general manager attributed the shilling’s strength to duty payments.
He said, “Importers and corporates are not buying because they are paying duties.â€
The two European currencies were posted at 2,280/2,350 and 3,300/3,400 for buying and selling respectively at the close of last year’s trading session.
The local currency’s strength started mid last month, with the shilling gaining an average of sh5 against the dollar and sh10 against other major currencies daily.
The deficit of foreign currencies is normally filled with the intervention of the central bank in the local foreign exchange market.
By Wednesday morning, the pound sterling and Euro were posted at 3,150/3,280 and 2,140/2,270 for buying and selling respectively, against the shilling.
“We are cautious of our transactions because the dollar is very volatile. The central bank intervened in the market on Friday, but the impact was not that big. Now they seem unbothered about what is going on,†Mwanje said.
The spread between buying and selling has widened to over sh30.
The spread is the margin between the buying and selling of currencies.
Ends