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Turkey's lira slid nearly 1% on Wednesday and shares hit a two-year low on investor concerns about strains with Washington over Ankara's push to purchase a Russian missile system and the central bank's reversal of recent monetary tightening.

The dollar held near a one-month high on Wednesday as trade tensions between the world's two biggest economies remained high before Fed minutes that may give more clues on what prompted U.S. policymakers to strike a broadly neutral stance this month.

May 22 (Reuters) - 0530 GMT: PREDICTING GAINS, STOCKS STRATEGISTS ASSUME BJP-LED COALITION WILL BE IN POWER Indian stocks are likely to build on this week's rally to finish the year at record highs if Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance are returned to power, according to a Reuters poll of nearly 50 stock market strategists.

Sri Lankan shares closed slightly higher on Wednesday, extending gains into a fourth session, but trading volume slumped to a near three-week low. ** Traders said the Easter day bombings and aftermath violence weighed on investor sentiment. Most investors have shied away from the market since the April 21 bombings that killed more than 250 people. ** Sri Lanka is unlikely to hit its full-year economic growth target of 3-4% following the Easter Sunday bombings, junior finance minister Eran Wickremeratne told Reuters on Tuesday. A Reuters poll has predicted the growth to slump to its lowest in nearly two decades this year. ** The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on May 14 approved the disbursal of a $164 million tranche of a loan programme, bringing the total disbursed to more than $1.16 billion. ** Sri Lanka's economy should still grow 3.5% this year and there has not been a revision yet, the IMF added on Thursday. ** The benchmark stock index ended 0.08% firmer on Wednesday at 5,295.68. It fell 1.28% last week. ** Turnover was 127.4 million rupees ($721,404), the lowest since May 3 and well below this year's daily average of around 557.8 million rupees. Last year's daily average was 834 million rupees. ** Foreign investors sold a net 30 million rupees worth of shares on Wednesday, extending the year-to-date net foreign outflow to 5.8 billion rupees worth of equities. ** The rupee ended 0.23% weaker at 176.65/80 per dollar, compared with Tuesday's close of 176.25/40, market sources said. ** Analysts expect the currency to weaken as money flows out of stocks and government securities. ** The rupee gained 0.1% last week and is up 3.4% for the year. Exporters had converted dollars as investor confidence stabilised after a $1 billion sovereign bond was repaid in mid-January. ** The rupee dropped 16% in 2018 and was one of the worst-performing currencies in Asia. ** Foreign investors sold a net 433.2 million rupees worth of government securities in the week ended May 15, extending net foreign outflow to 21.2 billion rupees so far this year, central bank data showed. ** Investor sentiment was damaged at the end of last year when President Maithripala Sirisena abruptly removed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and then dissolved parliament. A court later ruled the move unconstitutional, but the political turmoil led to credit rating downgrades and an outflow of foreign funds. ** For a report on global markets, click ** For a report on major currencies, click ($1 = 176.6000 Sri Lankan rupees) (Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

Turkey needs to stick to free market rules until the end, Isbank chief executive Adnan Bali said on Wednesday, warning that imposing controls would harm economic welfare.

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* U.S. considering sanctions on Chinese firm Hikvision - report

The Japanese yen and the Swiss franc firmed on Wednesday as risk appetite remained weak in the backdrop of festering trade tensions between the United States and China.