Sri Lanka stocks close up 1-pct: JKH gains

Aug 28, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lankan stocks closed up 1.06 percent on Friday for the third consecutive session despite foreign selling as the bargain hunters dominated the market activities as index heavy stocks made gains, brokers said. The Colombo benchmark All Share Price Index closed up 89.08 points at 7,362.22 up 1.22 percent. S&P SL20 closed 58.68 points higher at 4,049.84 up 1.47 percent. “Market went through wild swings in the week as it lost more than 200 points in the first two days of the week but managed to wipe out 50 percent of the losses during last three days. ASI declined by 120.65 points during the week whilst the S&P SL index declined by 91.53 points," Lanka Securities said. Turnover was 1.06 billion rupees, down from 1.44 billion rupees, Thursday with 113 stocks closing positive against 46 negative. The main index showed losses in John Keells Holdings closing at 183.70 rupees, up 5.70 rupees and Ceylon Tobacco Company closed at 979.00 rupees, up 19.06 rupees with one offthe floor trade of 40,000 shares at 960.00 rupees. Aasiri Hospital closed at 21.50 rupees, down 0.30 rupees with one off the floor trade of 3.5 million shares recorded at 21.80 rupees. Banking sector stocks traded actively with Commercial Bank closing at 173.50 rupees, up 3.10 rupees while Hatton National Bank closed at 225.00 rupees, up 8.00 rupees. DFCC Bank closed at 192.80 rupees, up 0.80 rupees. Dialog Axiata closed at 11.50 rupees, up 0.10 rupees. Foreign investors off-loaded shares for the sixth consecutive day with a net outflow of 176 million rupees and foreign participation was 26 percent. Net foreign outflows were seen in Distilleries Company 74 million, Laugfs Gas 44 million rupees and Kahawatte Plantations 14 million while net foreign inflow was mainly seen in Asiri Hospital Holdings 9 million rupees. Subsequent to today’s outflows the year-to-date foreign outflow increased to 3.4 billion. (UPDATED)