Foreign investors sold Sri Lankan rupee government bonds for a fourth consecutive week, offloading a net Rs. 5,447 million — about US$ 16.5 million — in the week ended 12 November, according to Central Bank data.
The outflow was reported by EconomyNext under the byline of Shihar Aneez. It extends net foreign selling out of rupee bonds to Rs. 33.9 billion over the last six weeks, and means the market has seen net foreign selling in six of the past 21 weeks.
The figure follows cleanly from last week’s: this desk reported a net Rs. 6,075 million outflow in the week ended 5 November, when the five-week cumulative outflow stood at Rs. 28.5 billion. Adding this week’s Rs. 5.4 billion produces the Rs. 33.9 billion now reported.
The year is still positive
Despite four straight weeks of selling, foreign investors remain net buyers of rupee bonds for 2026 as a whole, with around Rs. 38.2 billion flowing in through 12 November. That is well below the Rs. 71.5 billion net inflow recorded over the whole of last year.
EconomyNext links the latest selling to depreciation in the rupee, which has fallen 6.8 per cent through 13 November. The currency had been broadly steady for more than three years before a sharp fall in May, which the Central Bank attributed to higher oil and vehicle imports. It has since stabilised after the Central Bank raised its key policy rate by 100 basis points in May.
Update — where the yield curve actually sat on Friday
Two further filings give the maturity-level detail the weekly flows data omits, both covering Friday 13 November’s session.
EconomyNext’s bonds and forex report has yields quoted slightly higher across the curve: the 15.09.2029 bond at 10.80/90 per cent, up from 10.65/70; 15.12.2032 at 11.50/55, up from 11.40/50; 01.11.2033 at 11.68/75, up from 11.60/65; and 15.10.2034 at 11.88/92, up from 11.82/87. The 01.10.2030 was quoted at 11.05/10 and the 01.12.2031 at 11.15/20.
The Daily Mirror’s Saturday filing, a First Capital Research note, attributes the same upward drift to profit-taking on moderate volumes, and extends the curve further out: the 2036 maturity at 12.12 per cent and the 2037 at 12.15 per cent. Its ranges for the shared maturities sit within EconomyNext’s quotes.
Neither filing links the move to the foreign selling reported above, and neither says which maturities foreign investors sold — so the question raised below remains open.
A note on “flat” versus “depreciated”
The two filings describe the rupee differently on the same day, and both are right. EconomyNext calls it flat at 332.50/60, measuring against the previous session’s spot close, which was also 332.50/60. The Daily Mirror calls it depreciated, measuring against an indicative rate of Rs. 332.36. EconomyNext’s own published rate table carries both reference points — 332.5018 current against 332.3603 previous — so the divergence is one of basis, not of fact.
One figure should not be carried across: EconomyNext’s report puts the All Share Price Index at 22,099, down 0.26 per cent, where the published close was 22,024.18, down 0.60 per cent. Both imply the same previous close of roughly 22,156, which makes the EconomyNext number an intraday reading rather than a competing close.
Not reported
EconomyNext was the only verified newsroom to file on this week’s flows data. The Central Bank’s Weekly Economic Indicators release for 13 November, which would allow the outflow to be checked against the published stock of foreign-held Treasury bills and bonds, was not yet available at the time of writing. No filing breaks the outflow down between bills and bonds, or identifies which maturities were sold.