Category: Money

August 20, 2007 (LBO) – A Sri Lankan state bank’s offers for spot dollar moved above 112 rupees Monday with the bank, which usually represents Central Bank transactions, offering at 112.04, dealers said. On Friday, inter-bank deals closed above 112 despite the official offer being at 111.97. Import demand is seen driving the local currency […]

August 01, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank which runs the public debt office for the finance ministry opened a new network of offices to sell treasury bills to retail customers with the help of a state-owned savings bank. . Treasuries Drive Sri Lanka to use post offices, central bank offices to retail treasury […]

July 30, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka stocks were down 0.8 percent by noon Monday while the rupee traded around 111.78 to the dollar with state names intervening in the market, dealers said.The action had been initiated by East West Group chairman Nahil Wijesuriya, the newspaper said. In cash markets, overnight repo rates moved between […]

July 16, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka interbank call rates spiked to 20 percent Monday and the rupee was steady with state names offering spot dollars at 111.75 rupees, dealers said. On Friday the rupee closed at 111.75/80 to the dollar. The proposals to choose lead managers for a 400 million dollar government bond offering […]

July 13, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka would appoint lead managers to a 400 million dollar sovereign bond issue by the end of this month, the government’s debt office said. International investment banks have been asked to submit proposals by July 16, and the joint lead managers to the issue would be appointed by the […]

June 12, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has asked for proposals from international banks to raise 400 million dollars in medium term bonds, banking officials said.Banks that participated in a conference yesterday in Colombo have been given until July 16 to submit proposals with the deal expected to reach closure by October. The government is […]

June 12, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is shopping for 400 million dollars in medium term finance in global markets as a rising budget deficit is sending local interest rates rocketing up and the rupee fell to a new life low, bankers said. “Sooner or later it is going to blow up.” The Central Bank, […]

July 12, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has accepted a small amount of bids from this week’s treasury bills after rejecting bids outright for two weeks in a row, data released by the public debt office showed. The government accepted 1.1 billion out of an auction of 11.3 billion rupees of maturing treasury bills.The bills, […]

July 05, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank will use its regional offices to sell government securities to rural investors, the bank said, as real returns on treasuries are turning positive in a market that has been shaken with a series of aborted auctions.The bank runs the government’s debt office as an agency function […]

July 3, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s call rates moved above 35 percent with liquidity disappearing from the banking system despite the monetary authority pumping billions of rupees of new money into the system. Ministers told the media that the government may lose up to ten billion rupees through cuts of value added tax on […]

June 27, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka rejected a weekly treasury bills auction Wednesday as the rupee fell to a new life low against the dollar, dealers said.The local currency traded as low as 111.52 against the dollar before picking up to 111.45, after crossing the psychological 111 rupee barrier just two days earlier. The […]

KOLKATA, India, June 27, 2007 (AFP) – Businesses and public transport in India have been hit by a shortage of small change as rupee coins are being turned into razor blades, police said Wednesday. Demand for coins in Kolkata has soared as word spread that 100 one rupee coins could fetch 125 rupees from workshops […]