Sri Lanka stocks jumps to two-month high on foreign buying

Sri Lankan stocks extended gains for a ninth straight session on Friday, jumping 2 percent to a five-month high helped by blue chips and foreign buying.

The Colombo Stock Exchange’s main index gained 2 percent, or 107.93 points, to 5,496.85, its highest close since April 4.

“Everybody is chipping in. Everybody is participating in the run and it’s mainly a sentiment-driven market,” said a stockbroker asking not to be named.

The new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nalaka Godahewa, is expected to come up with new ideas to revive the market, which has fallen 9.51 percent so far this year.

Turnover was 1.76 billion rupees, more than double of this year’s daily average of 874.2 million rupees.

The bourse saw foreign inflows of 155.1 million rupees worth of shares, extending the net inflow so far this year to 28.66 billion rupees.

The rupee closed at 132.30/35 against the dollar, slightly firmer than Thursday’s close of 132.38/40. ($1 = 132.4 rupees) (Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Nick Macfie)

 

Source: Reuters