COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan rupee hit a record intraday low on Friday as strong demand for dollars from importers outpaced selling of the greenback by exporters, dealers said.
The rupee fell 0.17 percent to 143.40 per dollar during the day, surpassing its previous trough of 143.30 hit on Dec. 7.
The currency ended the day at 143.35/40 per dollar compared with Thursday's close of 143.20/30.
"There were a few buyers due to some imports and some other deals, today the demand was unusual," said a currency dealer, asking not to be named.
The central bank on Thursday conducted a repo auction for the third time this week, accepting 10.75 billion rupees ($75.10 million), or all the bids received, at 6.16 percent. The amount on offer was 20 billion rupees.
Commercial banks parked 72.869 billion rupees of surplus liquidity on Friday using the central bank's deposit facility at 6 percent, official data showed.
The central bank also absorbed a net 17.479 billion rupees on Friday, data showed, which analysts attributed to the repo auctions held on Thursday and the central bank's selling of treasury bills.
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