NAIROBI, March 20 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan shilling steadied against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, sustaining gains a day after the central bank's Monetary Policy Committee cut its base lending rate by 0.5 percent to 9.5 percent.

The local currency on Tuesday traded at an average of 101.25 against the dollar, the same level it closed on Monday.

The apex bank placed the shilling at 101.26 per dollar against the dollar, a slight rise from Monday's 101.27.

Commercial banks in the east African nation put the shilling at between 101.20 and 101.40 against the greenback.

Against the British Pound, the shilling fell to 142.37, down from 141.19 of the previous session.

Analysts expected the shilling to stabilize supported by the country's forex reserves, which hit an all-time high of 8.83 billion dollars on Monday due to proceeds from Eurobond. Enditem