Lanka News – Lanka Gazette – Sri Lanka News Portal

People’s Merchant PLC recently marked the transformation of the company’s strengths gained over a period of three decades into a licensed finance company, under the Finance Business Act No.42 of 2011, with a launch ceremony held at its head office at Navam Mawatha. The Chief Guest on the occasion was Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, Deputy Minister of Land and Land Development Siripala Gamlath, Central Bank of Sri Lanka Deputy Governor Chandra Premaratne and People’s Bank Chairman W. Karunajeewa were the Guests of Honour. A large gathering of customers and wellwishers of the company participated at this ceremony, where a record number of fixed deposit investments were made.a commemorative plaque was also unveiled on this occasion by the Chief Guest Basil Rajapakse at the invitation of People’s Merchant PLC Chairman Ajith Panditharatne.

People’s Merchant PLC, set up in 1983 was the first merchant banking institution in the country and has over the years consistently evolved to meet the emerging challenges and opportunities in the market and has diversified into leasing, hire purchase, term loans, pawning, real estate, margin lending, bill discounting and fixed deposits. People’s Merchant is also aspiring to further develop its merchant banking business by providing innovative merchant banking solutions.

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The Colombo bourse wrapped its daily operation today with recording notable losses in benchmark indices. ASI dropped 79.84 index points (-1.49%) to end at 5,295.60 while liquid MPI lost 73.76 index points (-1.53%) and end at 4,741.69. The Daily market turnover stood at LKR 429.9mn.

 John Keells Holdings (LKR 69.9mn) topped the turnover list followed by Nations Lanka Finance (LKR 57.5mn) and National Development Bank (LKR 29.6mn). Several Crossings were recorded in counters such as John Keells Holdings, Nations Lanka Finance and PC House. Blue Diamond (voting and non voting), Environmental Resources and HVA Foods were the heavily traded stocks during the day. Blue Diamond –voting and non-voting shares dropped by LKR 0.40 (-15.4%) and LKR 0.60 (-10.5%) respectively.  Company announced that it will not proceed with the proposed sub-division of shares as it was rejected by the shareholders at the EGM. Foreign participation accounted for 14.2% of the total market activity. At the end of the day, foreign investors were net buyers with a net foreign inflow of LKR 62.1mn. Dip in prices of index heavy counters namely Hatton National Bank (by LKR 10.00), Sampath Bank (by LKR 4.50), Carsons Cumberbatch (by LKR 14.00) and Nestle Lanka (by LKR 55.00) contributed negatively to the market performances.Tweet

Representatives of The Finance Company PLC (TFC) assured the public yesterday that the company would not be affected by the recent controversy over the sale of a 13% stake in TFC to National Savings Bank (NSB).

Speaking during an interview with Mirror Business, TFC Chair man Preethi Jayawardena and TFC Director/chief Executive Officer Kamal Yatawara reiterated that the transaction in question was strictly a private one between the owners of the shares and NSB, thereby having no material impact on TFC or its depositors.

Jayawardena added that the two directors in TFC who had sold their shares to NSB, Dinal Wijemanne and Rayynor Silva, had since resigned their posts in the company. However, no disclosure has been made by Silva to the Colombo Stock Exchange regarding either his resignation or the sale of shares at the time of printing.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will be meeting the Board of Directors of Taprobane Securities today in connection to the contentious The Finance-national Savings Bank deal, a SEC top official said.

“We have summoned the director board of Taprobane Securities, the brokerage involved in this deal for discussions. Last Friday we summoned Taprobane CEO/ Director Dinal Wijemanne for clarifications,” SEC Chairman Tilak Karunaratne told Mirror Business.

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The Sri Lankan rupee rose more than 3 percent yesterday as exporters sold dollars following the treasury secretary's threat to resume market interventions if the currency dropped beyond "tolerable" levels.

 Treasury Secretary P.B. Jayasundera told reporters last Monday that the currency should stabilise below 125 rupees and there was no fundamental reason for it to weaken beyond that level. "The rupee is firmer on exporter conversions and the market sentiment is that the rupee will strengthen further after the treasury secretary's comments," said a currency dealer.The rupee rose 3.33 percent to trade at 126.00 to the dollar, currency dealers said. The country's financial markets were closed on Tuesday for a holiday. To ease a shortage of dollars, the central bank also said it would allow part of a $500 million bond raised by the state-owned Bank of Ceylon to be sold in the market and would use the rest to build up its reserves, which were heavily depleted by past attempts to shore up the falling rupee. The currency hit an all-time low of 133.50 on April 25, but has since rebounded by close to 6 percent. Still, it is down 9.3 percent since the central bank stopped intervening to defend a specific price level on Feb. 9. It has depreciated more than 12 percent since Nov. 19, when the government allowed a 3 percent devaluation. 

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Colombo stocks closed in red today with both benchmark indices recording negative returns. ASI dropped marginally by 2.03 index points (-0.04%) to close at 5,417.17 while sensitive MPI closed at 4,830.73, a drop of 20.51 index points (-0.42%).Daily market turnover stood at LKR 429.6mn.

 John Keells Holdings topped the turnover list with an amount of LKR 85.3mn followed by Infrastructure Development (LKR 60.6mn) and Swarnamahal Financial Services (LKR 25.9mn). Four crossings were recorded in John Keells Holdings (333,033 shares at LKR 204.00p.s), Infrastructure Development (290,000 shares @ LKR 175.00p.s), Asia Assets Finance (7.0mn shares at LKR 3.50p.s) and Central Finance (122,966 shares at LKR 165.00p.s). Total value of these crossings amounted to 38% of the market turnover. In addition, PC House, Swarnamahal Financial Services and Tochwood Investments were the mostly traded stocks during the day. Price depreciations in index heavy counters such as John Keells Holdings (by LKR 2.10), Ceylon Tobacco (by LKR 3.70) and Central Finance (by LKR 3.70) contributed negatively to the index performancesTweet

Finlay Rentokil Ceylon (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary of Finlays Colombo PLC, was recently awarded the prestigious ISO 9001: 2008 certification for excellence in Quality Management Systems certifying timber preservation by a vacuum pressure impregnation process and using wood preservatives – a process that is unique in the market. This award was made by the Sri Lanka Standards Institution.

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Although Colombo bourse continued to be weighted down by notable selling pressure during the trading today, foreigners emerged as net buyers for the first time in the New Year.

 Foreign participation stood at 25.7% of the total market activity and at the end of the day foreign investors were the net buyers with a net foreign inflow of Rs.21.8 million, stock market data showed. ASI decreased by 33.00 points (-0.55%) to close at 5,939.75 where as sensitive MPI dipped by 27.43 points (-0.54%) to end at 5,093.46. Market turnover was registered at Rs.341.6mn. Premier Blue Chip John Keells Holdings Plc (Rs.76.5mn) made the strongest contribution to the daily turnover followed by Environmental resources Plc (Rs.62.8mn) and Commercial Bank Plc (Rs.45.5mn). In the meantime Touchwood Investments Plc, Commercial Bank Plc and Nation Lanka finance Plc made active contributions to the daily turnover.Tweet

Nestlé Sri Lanka, the local subsidiary of the world’s leading nutrition, health and wellness company, opened its new noodle plant at its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Kurunegala a while ago, marking the second phase of its investment commitment of Rs.10 billion in Sri Lanka.

 The company’s latest investment, amounting to Rs.1.1 billion, sees the completion of a new noodle manufacturing plant that will increase and upgrade output for Nestlé’s popular MAGGI noodles range.  The MAGGI noodle manufacturing plant was inaugurated by Maithripala Sirisena, Minister of Health, who presided at the event as Chief Guest; in the presence of Anura. P. Yapa, Minister of Environment; Johnston Fernando, Minister of Co-op & Internal Trade, Jagath Pushpakumara, Minster of Coconut & Janatha Estate Development; and Athula Wijesinghe, Chief Minister – NWP.  Tweet

The Colombo Stock Exchange started the new week on negative dynamics where benchmark indices fell sharply throughout the day. Furthermore all the sectors except for oil palm sector depicted considerable losses.

ASI dipped by 118.04 points (-2.04%) and ended at 5,663.09 while sensitive MPI declined by 105.18 points (-2.14%) to settle at 4,811.71.Market turnover stood at Rs.827.3mn. Swarnamahal Financial Plc (Rs.82.1mn) made the strongest contribution to the daily turnover along with Waskaduwa Beach resort Plc (Rs.56.2mn) and John Keells Holdings Plc (Rs.46.8mn). Asia Asset Finance Plc, Environmental resources Plc and HVA foods Plc recorded heavy trading during the day. Foreign participation stood at 3.8% of the total market activity and at the end of the day foreign investors were the net sellers with a net foreign out flow of Rs.41.9mn.Tweet