Sri Lanka's rupee closed higher on Wednesday as foreign banks sold dollars but political uncertainty dented investor sentiment, dragging the benchmark stock index down to a more than six-week low. The rupee ended at 182.25/40 on Wednesday, compared with 182.50/70 in the previous session, market sources said. On Thursday, the rupee had fallen to an all-time low of 183.00 against the dollar.

The rupee fell 19 percent in 2018, making it one of the worst-performing currencies in Asia, according to Refinitiv data, due to heavy foreign outflows. The rupee has declined about 5.04 percent since the political crisis started. ** The central bank said last week it would stick to an exchange rate policy of cautious intervention in times of excessive volatility in the forex market.

Copyright Reuters, 2019