Stocks rise on select shares

Sri Lanka's stock market, the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) edged up on Friday as retail investors bought blue chips that fell to attractive levels after some profit-taking, traders said.

On Friday, the Central Bank said it had temporarily asked brokers not to sell treasury securities to foreign customers, to maintain a cushion before the 10 per ent foreign ownership limit is reached.

"We don't have any serious funding requirement for right now. We can maintain the government cash flow from the present reserves," C.J.P. Siriwardena, superintendent of the Central Bank's public debt department, told Reuters.

Foreign investors are only allowed to hold up to 10 per cent of the total outstanding public debt. At present, there is about $300 million still available, Siriwardena said.

He did not say how long it would be until the temporary directive would be lifted, but said he foresaw no additional funding requirement for the next two to three weeks.

The market ended 0.12 per cent or 3.38 points firmer at 2,892.05. It reached an over 30-month high during trading on Friday before falling on profit-taking.

The telecom sector index, CSETLE rose 1.22 per cent while the health care sector index, CSEHLT gained 1.73 per cent.

"Market ended marginally up as retail investors snapped up select shares," said Harsha Fernando, CEO at SC Securities in Colombo. "It's the end of profit-taking sessions and the market will start picking up from next week."

No.1 mobile phone operator Dialog Telekom closed 4 per cent firmer at 6.50 rupees a share while private lender Hatton National Bank closed up 1.4 per cent at 163 rupees a share.

Shares in Asiri Surgical Hospital closed 5.1 per cent firmer at 10.50 rupees a share.The Sri Lankan stock market has been rising since mid-July on declining interest rates, high growth expectations, more market liquidity, increased confidence after an IMF loan, an upgraded rating outlook and foreign inflows.

The market is one of the best performing bourses in the world in 2009 with an average return of over 94 per cent so far. It has risen 53 per cent since the end of the war in mid-May.

Friday's turnover was 436.26 million rupees ($3.8 million), in line with last year's daily average of 464 million rupees.

The rupee was unchanged for a sixth straight week at 114.80/85 a dollar as the Central Bank intervened to mop up dollars to prevent appreciation and build up its reserves.

The inter-bank lending rate or call money rate CLIBOR edged down to 9.342 per cent from Thursday's 9.392 per cent.

- Reuters