Sri Lanka shares end in the red as telcos weigh; rupee firmer

Reuters: ** Sri Lankan shares closed at their lowest in more than six years on Tuesday, ending weaker for a seventh straight session, dragged down by telecommunication and banking stocks. 

** The market awaits for some positive news from the third and final vote on the 2019 budget scheduled for April 5, market sources said. 

** The Colombo Stock Exchange index ended down 0.29 percent at 5,513.67, its lowest close since Dec. 19, 2012. 

** The benchmark stock index slipped 1.36 percent last week, recording its seventh consecutive weekly drop. The index has declined 8.64 percent so far this year. 

** Turnover was 311.5 million rupees ($1.76 million), less than half of this year’s daily average of 669.2 million rupees. Last year’s daily average of 834 million rupees. 

** Foreign investors sold a net 36.6 million rupees worth of shares on Tuesday, extending the year-to-date foreign outflow to 6.1 billion rupees worth of equities so far this year. 

** The latest budget aims to increase government spending by 13 percent in 2019, during which presidential election must be held, while it has set an ambitious goal to reduce a large fiscal deficit. 

** The stability of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government has been questioned by the opposition since he was reinstated after a 51-day political crisis. 

** The rupee ended firmer at 177.40/60 to the dollar on greenback selling by some banks on behalf of inward remittances and exporter conversions. It had closed at 178.10/20 on Monday. 

** The rupee has climbed 2.93 percent this year as exporters converted dollars and foreign investors purchased government securities amid stabilising investor confidence after the country repaid a $1 billion sovereign bond in mid-January. 

** Worries over heavy debt repayment after the 51-day political crisis resulted in a series of credit-rating downgrades, which dented sentiment as the country struggled to repay its foreign loans. 

** Sri Lanka is struggling to repay its foreign loans, with a record $5.9 billion due this year, including $2.6 billion in the first three months. 

** The rupee dropped 16 percent in 2018, and was one of the worst-performing currencies in Asia due to heavy foreign outflows. 

** Foreign investors bought a net 3.5 billion rupees worth of government securities in the week ended March 19, the third net inflow in five weeks, turning year-to-date net foreign buying to 1.8 billion rupees, the latest central bank data showed.

($1 = 177.2500 Sri Lankan rupees) 

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)