Sri Lanka rupee at 364 to TT dollar, guidance rate at Rs359.43
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s commercial banks quoted the rupee at 364 against telegraphic transfers on Monday (23) while the central bank interbank spot trade was at 359.43.
However, on Monday, the central bank did not mention a daily guidance margin rate for spot. On Friday the guidance rate was quoted at 359.47.
Commercial banks were quoting 354/364 for telegraphic transfer dollars on Monday, remaining unchanged from last week.
In the kerb market the dollars was at 270/273 to the US dollars on Friday down from 295 at the beginning of the week.
The central bank in its monthly policy review on Thursday said anyone holding more than 10,000 dollars in hand without surrendering within a given period of time will be charged.
The central bank stopped quoting day rates on January 23 when the rupee was floated with an interest rate correction after the soft peg collapsed, amid a war. In 2021 and the central bank also started enforcing a rate incompatible with the policy rate at around 203 to the US dollar.
The central bank from August 2021 to April has hiked rates by almost 9 percent and in April alone the rates were hiked by 7 percent.
In the secondary market, there were only a handful of transactions despite the market being positive last week following the bond auction and the monetary policy meeting, market participants said.
A bond maturing on 01.06.2025 closed at 22.55/65 percent on Monday, narrower from 22.50/80 percent on Friday.
A bond maturing on 1.05.2027 closed at 21.15/21.75 percent on Monday, 21.40/70 percent on Friday.
(Colombo/May23/2022)
