Sri Lanka stocks close up 0.4-pct

Aug 26, 2014 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's stocks continued to rise above the 7,000 mark with price gains witnessed in Richard Pieris and telco stocks amid strong foreign buying, brokers said. Richard Pieris closed 1.30 rupees higher at 9.10 rupees, contributing most to the index gain.

Sri Lanka Telecom closed 60 cents higher at 54.60 rupees and Dialog Axiata closed 10 cents higher at 11.20 rupees.

Commercial Leasing and Finance closed 20 cents higher at 4.50 rupees.

The Colombo benchmark All Share Price Index closed 29.29 points higher at 7,013.32, up 0.42percent. The S&P SL20 closed 3.42 points lower at 3,851.85, down 0.09 percent.

Turnover was 1.73 billion rupees, up from 1.22 billion rupees a day earlier with 124 stocks closed positive against 79 negative.

John Keells Holdings closed 1.00 rupee lower at 242.00 rupees with three off-market transactions of 379.39 million rupees contributing 22 percent of the daily turnover.

JKHâ€™s W0022 warrants closed 10 cents lower at 68.50 rupees and its W0023 warrants closed 20 cents higher at 78.30 rupees.

The aggregate value of all off-the-floor deals represented 31 percent of the turnover.

Lanka Cement closed 1.60 rupees higher at 11.00 rupees and HVA Foods closed 40 cents higher at 12.50 rupees, attracting most number of trades during the day.

Foreign investors bought 543.15 million rupees worth shares while selling 62.80 million rupees worth shares.