Sri Lankan stocks rose slightly on Monday on select retail buying in small counters including hotel shares, brokers said.
The key Colombo all-share index ended up 0.13 percent, or 1.83 points, at 1,451.23, after trade began almost an hour late due to technical problems.
The bourse has gained 36 percent so far this year.
The top gainers by volume, Colombo Fort Land and Building Co Ltd rose 4.3 percent to 24.25 rupees and Ceylinco Insurance Co Ltd rose 2.27 percent to 45 rupees on foreign buying.
However, the Milanka index - which tracks the most liquid and highly capitalised stocks fell 0.21 percent, or 4.44 points, to 2,144.02. The index hit its life closing high of 2,228 in January this year.
National Development Bank Ltd fell 4.7 percent to 157.25 rupees and Commercial Bank of Ceylon Ltd fell 2.47 percent to 158 rupees on retail selling.
Tourism picked up after Tamil Tiger rebels signed a cease-fire agreement in 2002, halting a two-decade civil war for autonomy.
Talks aimed at converting the truce into permanent peace have been stalled since last year, but officials are expecting record arrivals of over 550,000 tourists this year.
The Hotels and Travels index rose 0.33 percent, or 3.87 points, to 1,162.95.
Total market turnover was 153.5 million rupees, with foreign purchases at 32 million rupees and foreign sales at 12.8 million rupees.
Comments
Comments are closed.