Sri Lanka rupee rises; stocks edge higher ahead of long weekend

Reuters: ** The Sri Lankan rupee closed 0.34 percent firmer on Thursday helped by banks’ dollar sales, while stocks ended marginally higher for the fourth straight session in thin trade ahead of a long weekend. 

** Many investors were on a holiday during the three-day week due to two long weekends. Both Monday and Friday in this week are public holidays. 

** The currency ended at 173.95/174.25 to the dollar, higher than Wednesday’s close of 174.55/65, Refinitiv Eikon data showed. 

** The island nation’s currency gained 0.3 percent this week, and 5.2 percent so far this year, as exporters converted dollars amid stabilising investor confidence after the country repaid a $1 billion sovereign bond in mid-January. 

** Sri Lanka plunged into a political turmoil in October last year when President Maithripala Sirisena abruptly removed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and then dissolved parliament. A court later ruled the move was unconstitutional, and Wickremesinghe was reinstalled as premier. 

** Investor sentiment took a big hit as a result of the 51-day political crisis, leading to credit rating downgrades and an outflow of foreign funds from government securities. 

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

** Foreign investors sold a net 2 billion rupees worth of government securities in the week ended April 10, the second weekly fall in six weeks, the latest central bank data showed. 

** The Colombo Stock Exchange index ended 0.05 percent firmer at 5,606.35. 

** The benchmark stock index gained 0.4 percent in the week. However, it has declined 7.4 percent so far this year. 

** Turnover came in at 200.3 million rupees ($1.15 million), nearly a third of this year’s daily average of 593.5 million rupees. Last year’s daily average came in at 834 million rupees. 

** Foreign investors bought a net 2.8 million rupees worth of shares on Thursday, but the market has seen a year-to-date net foreign outflow to 6 billion rupees worth of equities. 

($1 = 173.9500 Sri Lankan rupees) 

(Reporting by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Rashmi Aich)