Sri Lanka stocks close up 0.5-pct

Nov 05, 2014 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's stocks closed 0.51 percent higher with the price gains of Commercial Bank and Lanka IOC, amid net foreign purchases, brokers said. Commercial Bank of Ceylon closed 3.20 rupees higher at 172.80 rupees and Lanka IOC closed 4.60 rupees higher at 59.20 rupees, contributing most to the index gain.

Access Engineering closed 1.20 rupees higher at 33.20 rupees and John Keells Holdings closed 1.90 rupees higher at 255.00 rupees.

JKHâ€™s W0022 warrants closed 20 cents higher at 73.40 rupees and its W0023 warrants closed 50 cents higher at 79.00 rupees.

Dialog Axiata closed 10 cents higher at 12.20 rupees.

Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka said a listed debt offer for 2.00 billion rupees had been oversubscribed Wednesday and is closing on the same day.

The Colombo benchmark All Share Price Index closed 37.57 points higher at 7,358.46, up 0.51 percent. The S&P SL20 closed 15.86 points higher at 4,102.11, up 0.39 percent.

Turnover was 2.10 billion rupees, up from 1.99 billion rupees a day earlier with 116 stocks closed positive against 74 negative.

John Keells Holdings had off market transactions of 370.58 million rupees changing hands at 256.00 rupees per share contributing 18 percent of the turnover.

The aggregate value of all off-the-floor deals represented 22 percent of the daily turnover.

Lanka IOC attracted most number of trades during the day.

Foreign investors bought 699.14 million rupees worth shares while selling 151.50 million rupees worth shares.