Sri Lanka's rupee closed weaker for the fifth straight session on Friday on continued demand for dollars from banks, while equities ended the week on a negative note. The rupee was weaker by 0.14% at 181.10/20 to the dollar, compared with Thursday's close of 180.85/181.05. The currency is down 0.47% for the week, but is up 0.82% this year. Analysts said foreign outflows from government securities have shown a declining trend and the market is now waiting for foreign investors to reverse the selling trend.

The central bank does not release foreign flow data on a daily basis, but weekly data in the past four weeks has shown an outflow. Foreign investors sold government securities worth 598.9 million rupees in the week ended Sept. 11 for a fourth straight week, data showed, extending the net foreign outflow so far this year to 54.3 billion rupees through Sept. 11, central bank data showed.

Copyright Reuters, 2019