COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan rupee closed unchanged on Wednesday amid importer dollar demand and foreign outflows from t-bonds, as banks were reluctant to trade below the 144.00 level desired by the central bank, dealers said.
"We saw foreign investors selling some bonds," a dealer said asking not to be named. Another dealer said there was importer dollar demand and nobody was trading the spot rupee below 144.00.
The spot rupee ended flat at 144.00/20 per dollar.
The rupee forwards and swaps were actively traded on Wednesday, the second dealer said.
Dealers said the one-week forward, which acted as a proxy for the spot currency, ended steady at 144.30/50 per dollar.
The rupee is under pressure despite a 150-basis-point increase in commercial banks' statutory reserve ratio from Jan. 16. The central bank kept its key policy interest rates unchanged on Monday.
Commercial banks parked 62.1 billion rupees ($433.81 million) of surplus liquidity on Wednesday using the central bank's deposit facility at 6 percent, official data showed.
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