Rupee ends weaker; stocks down

(REUTERS) - Sri Lanka’s rupee closed weaker for the fifth straight session yesterday on continued demand for dollars from banks, while equities ended the week on a 
negative note.

The rupee was weaker by 0.14 percent at 181.10/20 to the dollar, compared with Thursday’s close of 180.85/181.05. The currency is down 0.47 percent for the week, but is up 0.82 percent this year. 

Analysts said foreign outflows from government securities have shown a declining trend and the market is now waiting for foreign investors to reverse the selling trend.
The Central Bank does not release foreign flow data on a daily basis, but weekly data in the past four weeks has shown an outflow.

Foreign investors sold government securities worth Rs.598.9 million in the week ended Sept. 11 for a fourth straight week, data showed, extending the net foreign outflow so far this year to Rs.54.3 billion through Sept. 11, Central Bank data showed. 

The benchmark stock index ended down 0.30 percent to 5,793.89. The bourse fell 0.54 percent for the week. 

Investors have been in a wait-and-watch mode since the main opposition party named a hard-line former defence chief as its presidential candidate. 

So far this year, the stock index has dropped about 4.72 percent. Equity market turnover was Rs.542.97 million (US$3.00 million), less than this year’s daily average of about Rs.669.8 million so far. 

Last year’s daily average was Rs.834 million. 

Foreign investors bought a net Rs.129.1 million worth of shares. But foreign investors were net sellers of Rs.2.41 billion worth of equities so far this year, according to index data.