Stocks edge up in light turnover; rupee up

REUTERS: Sri Lankan shares closed slightly firmer on Thursday and extended gains into a fifth session, but trading volume slumped to a near five-month low amid worries over economic slowdown and lack of investor appetite for risky assets. 

Traders said the Easter day bombings and aftermath violence weighed on investor sentiment. Most investors have shied away from the market since the April 21 bombings that killed more than 250 people. 

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

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on May 14 approved the disbursal of a $164 million tranche of a loan program, bringing the total disbursed to more than $1.16 billion. 

The benchmark stock index ended 0.19% firmer on Thursday at 5,305.80. It fell 1.28% last week. 

Turnover was Rs. 83.5 million ($ 473,490), the lowest since 4 January and well below this year's daily average of around Rs. 552.6 million. Last year's daily average was Rs. 834 million. 

Foreign investors sold a net Rs. 8.4 million worth of shares on Thursday, extending the year-to-date net foreign outflow to Rs. 5.8 billion worth of equities. 

The rupee ended 0.2% firmer at 176.30/45 per dollar, compared with Wednesday's close of 176.65/80, on exporter dollar sales, market sources said. 

Analysts, however, expect the currency to weaken as money flows out of stocks and government securities. 

The rupee gained 0.1% last week and is up 3.4% for the year. Exporters had converted dollars as investor confidence stabilised after a $1 billion sovereign bond was repaid in mid-January.