Shilling firms to near 8-month high vs dollar

The shilling gained to a near eight-month high yesterday, helped by banks trimming their dollar positions amid slack corporate demand for the hard currency. The shilling hit a session high of 83.95/84.15 in early trade, its firmest since 11 September, 2012, and was at 84.00/20 by 0732 GMT, up 0.1 per cent from Thursday’s close. “Customers are not buying dollars as much. Banks that were holding long dollar position are forced to sell now,” said John Muli, a trader at African Banking Corporation. The shilling has rallied 2.1 per cent since a March 4 presidential vote was won by Uhuru Kenyatta...