Sri Lanka stocks close up 0.5-pct

Sep 11, 2014 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's stocks close higher with banking and telco stocks gaining while the turnover nearing 5.6 billion rupees amid continued strong foreign buying, brokers said. Sri Lanka Telecom closed 1.90 rupees higher at 55.00 rupees and Commercial Bank of Ceylon closed 3.70 rupees higher at 163.90 rupees, contributing most to the index gain.

Commercial Leasing and Finance closed 40 cents higher at 5.00 rupees and Ceylon Tobacco Company closed 19.90 rupees lower at 1,180.00 rupees.

The Colombo benchmark All Share Price Index closed 36.00 points higher at 7,199.25, up 0.50 percent. The S&P SL20 closed 24.59 points higher at 4,013.18, up 0.62 percent.

Turnover was 5.59 billion rupees, up from 2.06 billion rupees a day earlier with 125 stocks closed positive against 76 negative.

ODEL closed 50 cents higher at 22.00 rupees with four massive off-market transactions of 2.67 billion rupees changing hands at 22.00 rupees per share contributing 48 percent of the daily turnover.

The aggregate value of all off-the-floor deals represented 68 percent of the turnover.

Union Bank of Colombo closed 1.10 rupees higher at 22.30 rupees, attracting most number of trades during the day.

Foreign investors bought 736.51 million rupees worth shares while selling 171.55 million rupees worth shares.