Rupee falls on uncertainty amid foreign outflow; stocks up

Reuters: The rupee fell in dull trade on Friday as outflows from Government securities and stocks due to political uncertainty raised dollar demand.

Stocks snapped four straight sessions of declines, but political uncertainty continued to weigh on investor sentiment after the Parliament Speaker said on Monday he would not recognise President Maithripala Sirisena’s sacking of Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister and appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place. 

The Speaker has called the President’s sacking of the Prime Minister to bring a former leader back to power a non-violent coup d’état.  The rupee ended at 175.10/30 per dollar on Friday, compared with the previous close of 175.05/20. The rupee has weakened more than 1% since the political crisis began on 26 October.

The rupee hit a record low of 175.65 per dollar on 1 November.

The rupee weakened 3.7% in October after a 4.7% drop in September against the dollar. It has dropped 14% this year.

Foreigners sold a net 660.8 million worth stocks on Friday. They have offloaded equities worth Rs. 7.8 billion since the political crisis started on 26 October.

The bond market saw an outflow of about Rs. 21 billion between 25 October and 7 November, Central Bank data showed. This year, the island nation has seen Rs. 17.2 billion in outflows from stocks and Rs. 110.8 billion from Government securities and bourse, Central Bank data respectively showed.

The Colombo stock index rose 0.81% to 5,978.63. The bourse fell 1.9% this week after it gained 4.5% last week due to heavy retail investor participation. It has slipped 6.1% so far this year.

Stock market turnover was Rs. 1.3 billion ($ 7.43 million) on Friday, more than this year’s daily average of Rs. 820.7 million.

Shares of conglomerate John Keells Holdings PLC ended 1.8% firmer, Sri Lanka Telecom PLC rose 4.5%, Lanka ORIX Leasing Company PLC closed 2.5% firmer and Dialog Axiata PLC gained 0.9%.