UPDATE 1-Kenya stocks break winning streak, shilling steady

* Sasini, Safaricom drag main share index down
* Shilling seen under pressure from end-month dollar orders
* Rising debt yield could offer support to shilling

(Recasts with markets close, stocks)
By Kevin Mwanza
NAIROBI, July 27 (Reuters) - Kenyan stocks halted a
week-long rally, dragged down by shares in agricultural firm
Sasini and the country's leading mobile operator
Safaricom, while the shilling held steady
against the dollar.
The benchmark NSE-20 Share Index edged down 0.2
percent to 3,870.51 points.
Shares in tea and coffee producer Sasini reversed the
previous day's gains, down 3.5 percent to 12.50 shillings after
industry data showed tea output fell 11.4 percent in the first
half of the year due to bad weather.
"A disappointing outlook for tea production in 2012
announced by the Tea Board of Kenya appeared to weigh down
agricultural stocks with ... Sasini Tea featuring among the
leading losers in the session," said Standard Investment Bank in
a daily report.
Safaricom fell 2.5 percent to 3.85 shillings as investors
took profit from a recent rally after a report showed a jump in
mobile phone subscribers in the country.
The Kenyan shilling was steady on Friday, but traders
said the local currency remained vulnerable to a spike in
end-month demand for the greenback in coming days.
The shilling traded at 84.15/35 per dollar at the 1300 GMT
market close, the same level it closed at on Thursday.
"With end-month dollar demand from the usual energy and
manufacturing guys, we could see the shilling weaken
marginally," said Chris Muiga, a trader at Kenya Commercial
Bank.
Traders said however that the shilling, which has been
largely stable this year, propped up by the central bank's tight
monetary stance, could remain in the 84.00-84.50 range,
supported by offshore dollar inflows into the debt market.
Rising yields on government securities, with the benchmark
91-day Treasury bill up to 13.226 percent at auction
on Thursday, from 12.929 percent last week, have attracted
foreign investors back into the Kenyan debt market.
In the bond market, government and corporate bonds worth 1.4
billion shillings were traded, down from 2.2 billion shillings
on Thursday.
...........................Shilling spot rates
.....................Shilling forward rates
.......................Cross rates
..................................Local contributors
.......................Central Bank of Kenya Index
.....................Kenyan Bonds contributor pages
...............Treasury bill yields
..................Central bank open market operations
.........................Horizontal repo transactions
, ................Daily interbank lending rate
.............................Kenya Bond pricing
..................Real time Africa economic data
<ECI & AFR> ...........................African economic news
.................................NSE-20 Share Index
.................................NSE All Share Index
...........................FT NSE Kenya 15 Index
.......................... FT NSE Kenya 25 Index
SPEED GUIDES:

(Additional reporting by Beatrice Gachenge; Editing by George
Obulutsa and Stephen Nisbet)