Sri Lanka stocks end at 1-week peak in thin trade; rupee edges higher

Reuters: ** Sri Lankan shares ended firmer for the second straight session on Monday in dull trade to hit a one-week closing high, while the rupee ended slightly stronger, market sources said. 

** The benchmark stock index ended 0.47% firmer on Monday at 5,298.18, further moving away from its lowest close since May 17 hit on Thursday. It fell 0.24% last week and declined 12.1% this year so far. 

** On May 31, the central bank cut its key interest rates to support a faltering economy as overall business and consumer confidence slumped following deadly bomb attacks in April.

** Sri Lanka is unlikely to hit its full-year economic growth target of 3-4% following the bombings, junior finance minister Eran Wickremeratne told Reuters last month. A Reuters poll has forecast growth to slump to its lowest in nearly two decades this year. 

** The government’s pension fund has resumed investing in risky assets as the stock market is “extremely undervalued at the moment and is considered a good time to go in”, the central bank governor said last month at its monetary policy meet. 

** Monday’s stock market turnover was 75.5 million Sri Lankan rupees ($428,247.31), its lowest since Jan.4 and well below this year’s daily average of about 531.1 million rupees. Last year’s daily average was 834 million rupees. 

** Foreign investors sold a net 7.2 million rupees worth of shares, extending the year to date net foreign outflow to 5.53 billion rupees. 

** The rupee ended at 176.40/50 per dollar, compared with Friday’s close of 176.45/55, market sources said. 

** Analysts expect the rupee to weaken further as money flows out of stocks and government securities. 

** The rupee fell 0.03% last week but is up 3.51% for the year. Exporters had converted dollars as investor confidence stabilised after a $1 billion sovereign bond was repaid in mid-January. 

** The rupee dropped 16% in 2018 and was one of the worst-performing currencies in Asia. 

** Foreign investors sold a net 3.5 billion rupees worth of government securities in the week that ended on June 4, extending the island nation’s net foreign outflow to 21.9 billion rupees so far this year, central bank data showed. 

($1 = 176.3000 Sri Lankan rupees) 

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Rashmi Aich)