Stock market ends at 2-week closing high; blue chips lead

Wednesday, 28 September 2016 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters - Sri Lankan stocks ended slightly firmer on Tuesday to a two-week closing high led by blue chips, amid foreign outflows and tax hike concerns.

Foreign investors sold a net 22.3 million rupees worth of shares on Tuesday extending the year-to-date net forging outflow to 3.03 billion rupees worth of equities.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday said Sri Lanka’s government, which has failed to raise taxes as promised when it received a $1.5 billion loan from the lender in June, needs to implement a tax reform package without further delay.

The reform package will include raising taxes to increase the government revenue and reduce fiscal deficit.

The benchmark index of the Colombo Stock Exchange finished up 0.07 percent, or 4.35 points, at 6,4783.29.

After four straight weekly losses, the index posted a weekly gain of 0.10 percent last week.

Turnover stood at 895.8 million rupees, more than this year’s daily average of 752.2 million rupees.

Shares in conglomerate John Keells Holdings Plc rose 1.2 percent, while Commercial Credit and Finance Plc jumped 11 percent and Sri Lanka Telecom Plc rose 0.7 percent.