Sri Lankan shares marginally higher

Sri Lankan shares ended with modest gains on Tuesday as local investors picked up beverage and trading shares, while block deals boosted the turnover to more than a two-month high. The Colombo stock index ended 0.08 percent firmer at 6,377.38. The Colombo stock index fell 0.2 percent last week, its eighth straight weekly drop.
Top mobile phone operator Dialog Axiata after market hours said that it acquired 80.34 percent of Colombo Trust Finance for 1.072 billion rupees ($7 million). Turnover was 2.03 billion rupees ($13.29 million), the highest since June 23 and well above this year's daily average of around 863.5 million rupees.