Markets

Sri Lanka shares edge down on weak sentiments

Stock Market. Free public domain CC0 image.

Thursday January 12, 2023 6:42 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka shares edged down on Thursday on weak macroeconomic sentiments, analyst said.

“Bourse reverted to the red zone on the back of negative sentiment raised among investors on the possible delay in the debt restructuring talks which could postpone the IMF bailout for the country to 2Q2023, as highlighted by Standard Charted Research.,” First Capital Market Research said in it’s daily note.

Analyst said the market has also moved to a wait-and-see approach ahead of the earnings report that is expected next week.

The main All Share Price Index (ASPI) closed at 0.56 percent or 46.82 points lower at 8,334.05.

However, the government has decided to cut down expenditure as the financial crisis was worser than they expected it to be.

Market has been falling since the year started due to the proposed 65 percent electricity tariff hike while the government also hiked various excise duties.

The most liquid index S&P SL20 closed 0.43 percent or 11.03 points lower to 2,549.92.

First quarter of 2023 is expected to be negative with the taxations going in to effect from January 1st and there are talks of a hike in electricity tariffs, which has gained Cabinet approval and is waiting for recommendations by the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka.

Whereas the second quarter was expected to be more positive with the anticipation of IMF getting through and with the interest rates expected to ease as the taxes starts to generate funds.

Sri Lanka is expecting a further contraction in the economy after a negative growth in 2022, Cabinet Spokesperson Bandula Gunawardena said at the Weekly Cabinet Press Briefing.

The market witnessed a turnover of 1.9 billion rupees, lower than this month’s 2.0 billion rupees average daily turnover. It is also comparatively much lower than 2022’s daily average turnover of 2.9 billion rupees.

The market saw a net foreign outflow of 10.5 million rupees. The net foreign inflow for the first seven session of January is 80 million rupees. The total foreign inflow of 2022 was 31 billion rupees.

Lanka IOC pushed the index down to close at 2.3 percent lower at 181 rupees.

Melstacorp fell 2.1 percent to close at 46 rupees and LOLC closed 1.7 percent higher at 371.8 rupees a share. (Colombo/Jan12/2023)

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Economy

Sri Lanka seeks to settle India ACU debt, credit lines over 5-years

Sunday March 26, 2023 9:22 am

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka has requested India to settle payments due to the country under the Asian Clearing Union mechanism and credit lines given in 2022 over 5 years, Indrajit Coomaraswamy, an advisor the island’s government said.

Sri Lanka is negotiating with India to settle the money over a 5-year period, Coomaraswamy, a former central bank governor told an online forum hosted by the Central Bank.

“Our request from the Indians is to settle it over five years,” he said. “That I think is still in the early stages of negotiation. The same with the one billion line of credit.”

Sri Lanka’s central bank owed the ACU 2.0 billion US dollars to the Asian Clearing Union according to a year end debt statement, issued by the Finance Ministry.

Sri Lanka owned India, 1,621 million dollars according to ACU data by year end, excluding interest.

India has given a 1 billion US dollar credit line to Sri Lanka as well a credit line for petroleum.

Sri Lanka in March 2024 has paid 121 million US dollar out of a 331 million US dollar IMF tranche to settle an Indian credit line.

Indian credits were given after the country defaulted in April 2022 as budget support/import when most other bilateral lenders halted giving money. (Colombo/Mar26/2023)

Bonds & Forex

Sri Lanka coconut auction prices up 1.16-pct

Sunday March 26, 2023 7:26 am

ECONOMYNEXT- Sri Lanka’s coconut auction prices went up by 1.16 percent from a week ago at an auction on Thursday, data showed.

The average price for 1,000 nuts grew to 83,219.45 from 82,260.58 a week earlier at the weekly auction conducted by Sri Lanka’s Coconut Development Authority on March 23.

The highest price was 92,500 rupees for 1,000 nuts up from the previous week’s 90,600 rupees, while the lowest was 76,500 also up from 70,000 rupees.

The auction offered 900,010 coconuts and 583,291 nuts were sold. (Colombo/Mar 26/2023)

Economy

Sri Lanka in talks for billion dollar equivalent Indian rupee swap

Saturday March 25, 2023 6:44 am

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka is in talks with India for a billion US dollar equivalent Indian rupee central bank swap, to facilitate trade, Indrajit Coomaraswamy, ad advisor to the government said.

“The amount is still uncertain it could be up to the equivalent of a billion US dollars,” Coomaraswamy told an online forum hosted by Sri Lanka’s central bank.

The money will be used to facilate India Sri Lanka trade, he said.

India has been trying to popularize the use of Indian rupees for external trade and also encouraged Sri Lanka banks to set up Indian rupee VOSTRO accounts.

However the first step in popularizing a currency for external trade is to get domestic agents, especially exporters, to accept their own currency for trade, like in the case of the US or EU, analysts say.

India’s billion US dollar credit to Sri Lanka given during the 2022 crisis is settled in Indian rupees (transaction need).

However the Indian government itself has chosen to denominate it in US currency for debt purposes (future value).

In most South Asian nations, receivers of remittances are willing to accept domestic currencies, leading to active VOSTRO account transactions.

Sri Lanka is expected to repay a 400 million US dollar swap with the Reserve Bank of India next year under an International Monetary Fund backed program for external stability and debt re-structuring.

Central bank swap proceeds sold to banks, which are then sterilized with inflationary open market operations, can trigger forex shortages and currency crises, analysts warn.

Sri Lanka went to the International Monetary Fund after two years of inflationary monetary operations by the central bank’s issue department (money printed to suppress interest rates) triggered the biggest currency crisis in its history and external sovereign default.

Sri Lanka had gone to the IMF 16 times with similar external troubles except for the April 2003 extended fund facility under Central Bank Governor A S Jayewardene which was a purely reform-oriented program with the World Bank (PRGF/PRSP) program at a time when he was collecting reserves with deflationary monetary policy and perhaps the lowest inflation since the Bretton Woods collapsed. (Colombo/Mar26/2023)