(Bloomberg) -- The Kenyan shilling weakened 0.3 percent against the dollar to 102.15, its lowest in a week, after strong appetite for the greenback and patchy foreign-currency inflows, Nairobi-based Commercial Bank of Africa said.

The currency will remain in a narrow band against the dollar in the absence of fresh stimulus, the lender said in an emailed note.

• Shilling is still Africa’s best performing currency having added 1.21% this year. The currency shed 1.08% since end-October, and has erased more than 50% of gains since January.
• 50-day average crossed the 200-day average, commonly referred to as a death cross, signaling that further weakness in store for the shilling.
• “We expect the shilling to claw back ground as imports reduce and diaspora remittances peak,” Nairobi-based investment bank Genghis Capital said in emailed note.

To contact the reporter on this story: Adelaide Changole in Nairobi at achangole2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Helen Nyambura, Michael Gunn

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