Bourse up; rupee down

Reuters: The stock market rose on Friday in strong volume to end at a near two-week high on buying of bank shares despite a an outflow of foreign funds, while the rupee ended marginally weaker on importer demand for dollars.

The main share index rose 0.69%, or 40.25 points, to end at 5,850.67, its highest since 28 January. The day’s turnover was Rs. 1.95 billion ($ 15.46 million), more than this year’s daily average of 1.18 billion rupees.

“With the recent dip in interest rates we see a renewed retail interest in the market,” said Harsha Fernando, CEO at SC Securities in Colombo.

Yields in T-bills fell for the ninth straight week at an auction on Wednesday and stood near a one-year low. Foreign investors were net sellers of Rs. 327.77 million worth of shares on Friday, pushing up the net foreign outflow this year to Rs. 1.11 billion. The rupee ended weaker at 126.20/30 to the dollar from Thursday’s close of 126.10/20 as two state banks bought dollars to cover oil import bill, dealers said.