Sri Lanka stocks close up 0.5-pct: Budget gains

Nov 23, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lankan stocks closed up at 0.55 percent on Friday with John Keells Holdings and other index heavy stocks showing gains following last Friday’s budget, brokers said. The Colombo benchmark All Share Price Index closed up 38.40 points at 7,055.84 up 0.55 percent. S&P SL20 closed 8.61 points higher at 3,782.35 up 0.23 percent. Turnover was 885 million, lower than the daily average of 1.1 billion rupees with 108 stocks closing positive against 52 negative. “The government’s maiden budget drove the market up today with gains in some index heavy stocks,” Lanka Securities said. “However the banking stocks were down following the budget.” The main index showed gains in John Keells Holdings closing at 188.90 rupees, up 3.10 rupees and Nestle Lanka closing at 2,098.40 rupees, up 0.72.20 rupees. Cargills Ceylon closed at 190.00 rupees, up 15.00 rupees. Losses were seen in the banks with Sampath Bank closing at 254.50 rupees, down 6.30 rupees and Commercial Bank closed at 151.00, down   0.50 rupees. Active trading was seen in Access Engineering with the stock closing at 24.00 rupees, up 0.10 rupees with over 7.7 million shares traded. Two off the floor trades were recorded amounting to 2.5 million shares at 24.00 rupees. Foreign investors were net sellers with 59 million rupee net foreign outflow.