Uganda shilling trades flat, seen underpinned by debt sale

The Ugandan shilling traded flat on Friday and was expected to be underpinned going into next week by dollar inflows into a government securities auction.

At 0847 GMT, commercial banks in Kampala quoted the currency at 2,475/2,485, unchanged from Thursday's close.

"The only discernible risk to shilling stability would be from the euro zone," said Dickson Magecha, a trader at Standard Chartered Bank in Nairobi.

"But since the central bank promised to guard against any spillover effect from there, I think the shilling should keep trading stable going into next week."

Last week, central bank governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile said he would "act decisively" to prevent turbulence from the euro zone from putting the local currency under pressure.

The central bank is scheduled to sell 120 billion shillings worth of Treasury bills of 91-, 182-, and 364-day tenors next Wednesday.

Although yields on Ugandan debt have dipped recently, analysts say they're still high enough to draw foreign investor interest.

At an auction on May 30, the yield on Uganda's 91-day paper inched down to 17.9 percent from 18.7 percent at the previous sale. Yields on 2- and 5-year bonds likewise fell at an auction on May 24.

Reuters
08 June 2012