Lanka News – Lanka Gazette – Sri Lanka News Portal

After aid and investment from China and India, Sri Lanka is now turning to Singapore’s biggest investment arm, Temesek Holdings, to bail out state entities like SriLankan Airlines and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), through equity investments, official sources said. Continue Reading

2010-04-01 16:32:52

The Colombo shares turned around on Thursday, to end the three-day trading on a positive note on the back of the Commercial Bank (CB) share split announced yesterday, followed by the more speculative and retail favourite Environmental Resource and Investments (ERI) moving up in price sharply, analysts said.

The CB share saw a Rs 13 hike to end at Rs 214.75 with ERI seeing a Rs 12.75 increase to close at Rs 115.25.

Analysts said that retail activity was witnessed in the market today. “The market is expected to slow with the holiday season approaching, but it will bring fresh opportunities to the investors,” Thakshila Hulangamwa, Director Asha Phillip said.

The All Share increased by 0.59% to close at 3746.5 with the Milanka seeing a 1.36% increase to close at 4328.7 on a Rs 565 million turnover. (DEC)

2010-04-02 19:19:20

The IMF said on Friday that it was ‘delighted’ by the news that Sri Lanka has been able to achieve some economic targets which was the cause of concern earlier.

IMF Country Representative Dr Koshy Mathai told TimesOnline that he was ‘verbally’ informed by the Central Bank of these developments and official intimation was expected. “Yes we are delighted by this news,” he said. Earlier Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal told this website that the Bank had met the fund’s March 31 targets on reserve money and net international reserves.

“The government has also met its borrowings targets as at March 31, which now clears the way for the third IMF tranche,” he said. Dr Mathai said as agreed with the Bank earlier, a team from the fund will be in Sri Lanka after the elections to discuss the way forward.
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Sri Lanka’s ceramic industry is facing a severe threat of losing the European market for its tableware, sanitary ware, hotel and ornamental ware if the EU decides to finally withdraw the GSP + facility, according to Sunil Wijesinha, Chairman of tableware exporter Dankotuwa Porcelain and former head of the Ceramics Council.

He told the Business Times that his company with 1100 workers will be badly hit by the decision at a time when there is strong competition from Bangladesh, a new entrant to the porcelain industry with Sri Lankan knowhow, moulds and expertise as the latter would get the orders Sri Lanka might lose if duty free access to European Union markets is withdrawn. Continue Reading

Unless liquidity increases, profitable enough for major international investors

Business Times panel discussion

Stakeholders at the Colombo bourse are calling for increased liquidity in the market to attract major international funds and investors saying unless this happens Colombo will remain a place attracting just small players.

“The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) increased by 130% last year and was the second best performer in the world, but it was mostly driven by local investors and significant public institutional investors. There was Rs 800 million last year in foreign outflows and they were net sellers. During the past two months they were net sellers of about Rs 2-3 billion and still counting. Despite all the hype, we are only a dot – our market capitalisation is Rs. 110 billion, which is the size of one large Indian company,” Channa Amaratunga, Director CT Capital told an exclusive panel discussion on the stockmarket organised by the Business Times on Wednesday.

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With more state entities flocking to make forays into the publicly listed banks in the country, Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC) recently received special approval from the Monetary Board of the Central Bank to purchase more than 10% in NDB Bank, according to SLIC sources.

“Presently we own 10%. But we got special permission to go for a further stake of 5% (which purchase would be made later,” an SLIC source told the Business Times. The Banking Act bars individuals or institutions from owning more than 10% in a bank unless special permission is given by the Monetary Board. SLIC also got approval to increase its 6.08% stake to 15% in Hatton National Bank (HNB) about two weeks ago with that transaction being done on Thursday. SLIC also has stakes in DFCC and Seylan.

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