* Safaricom H1 earnings beat market expectations * Kenya Airways shares jump on earnings bet * Tight liquidity seen supporting shilling By Kevin Mwanza NAIROBI, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Kenyan main share index rose on Wednesday, pushed up by telecoms operator Safaricom which reported better-than-expected results, while theshilling held steady in tight supply. The benchmark NSE-20 share index rose 0.7 percent to4,990.24 points. Safaricom, which is 40 percent owned by Britain's Vodafone, closed 0.5 percent up at 9.70 shillings and accountedfor 78 percent of all the shares traded on the Nairobi bourse onWednesday. Analysts said investors bought Safaricom shares, now up 91percent this year, after it posted a 38 percent jump inhalf-year profits and said it was raising its full-year guidancefor free cash flow. "Safaricom's performance was larger than what the market hadexpected. People are jumping on that bandwagon," said analystDaniel Kuyoh of Kingdom Securities. The share price of Kenya Airways, one of Africa'sleading airlines, jumped 7.1 percent to 11.30 shillings asinvestors bet its half-year results, which are announced nextweek, would be an improvement on the same period in 2012. On the foreign exchange market, the shilling was posted at85.25/45 per dollar at the 1300 GMT market close, the same levelit closed at on Tuesday Traders said tight supply of the currency in the moneymarkets had made it expensive for banks to hold long dollarpositions. They said annual tea bonus payments over the last two weekshad concentrated shilling supply at a few commercial banks,pushing interest rates on the interbank market higher. "There is some imbalance in the money markets. There is alsono real demand (for dollars)," said Julius Kiriinya, a trader atAfrican Banking Corporation. Central bank data showed overnight interbank lending ratesrose to 12.0688 percent on Tuesday from 11.8354 percent onMonday. The bank noted a "skewed distribution of liquidity" in astatement that followed a monetary policy committee meeting onTuesday. It injected 7 billion shillings ($82.04 million) intothe money markets using reverse repos on Wednesday. ...........................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 ...........................African economic news .................................NSE-20 Share Index .................................NSE All Share Index ..........................FT NSE Kenya 15 Index .......................... FT NSE Kenya 25 Index SPEED GUIDES:
LONDON BROKER RATINGS: UBS raises Centrica to 'buy' from 'neutral
(Alliance News) - The following London-listed shares received analyst recommendations Wednesday morning and Tuesday:
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