EXISTING TRENDS IN FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES OF KENYA’S MAIN TRADING CURRENCIES
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Publication Date
2013Author
Ouma Johnmark Obura, MBA Prof. M. S. Mukras, PhD Dr. David Oima, PhD
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Show full item recordAbstract/ Overview
Performance of a security market reflects the economic situation of a
country as it is affected by both a country’s domestic and foreign economic
events. Given the current increased level of cross borders transactions with
the value of total exports growing by 25.6% between 2007 and 2008 and
imports increasing by 27.4% between the same periods, it was likely that
fluctuations in foreign exchange rate market continued to fuel changes in
financial markets like Nairobi Securities Exchange market. Since securities
markets trade on assets with varying degree of risks, foreign exchange rates
fluctuations was believed to be a factor that affect the performance of
financial markets. The purpose of this study was to determine the trend of
foreign exchange rates fluctuation of Kenya’s main trading currencies, the
US Dollar, the Euro and the UK Pound. The study used secondary data
collected between the periods January, 2006 to December, 2010 from the
Central Bank of Kenya website in establishing the existing trend of foreign
exchange rates fluctuation in Kenya. Descriptive statistics, Pearson Product
Moment Correlation and Trend Analysis were used in the study. The
findings revealed the existence of positive trends in US dollar and the Euro
exchange rates and negative trends in UK pound exchange rates. Therefore
the study recommended that market players like corporate investors and
investment mangers should closely monitor these trends as they are useful in
predicting future financial market outcomes.