Thursday 25 June 2015

Sri Lanka shares slip from one-week high, led by Nestle Lanka, Keells

Sri Lankan shares fell on Thursday from the previous session's one-week high, led by Nestle Lanka Plc and market heavyweight John Keells Holdings Plc due to political uncertainty ahead of the announcement of parliamentary polls.

The main stock index ended 0.32 percent, or 22.50 points, lower at 7,031.33.

Turnover stood at 628.1 million rupees ($4.7 million), well below this year's daily average of about 1.1 billion rupees.

"The market continued its downtrend, ending the day on a negative note, with institutional and high networth investors dominant," TKS securities said in a note to investors.

Nestle Lanka fell 2.40 percent, while conglomerate John Keells fell 0.49 percent.

Keells said in a disclosure to the bourse that its subsidiary Waterfront Properties (Private) Ltd had finalised a $395-million syndicated project development facility with Standard Chartered Bank for debt financing of its luxury real estate project.

The market saw net foreign outflow of 166.2 million rupees on Thursday, extending net foreign outflows in the past 22 sessions to 3.63 billion rupees in stocks.

Investors were confused due to a lack of direction on interest rates, economic policies, and on the timing of the parliamentary election, analysts said.

President Maithripala Sirisena has said he will dissolve the parliament once some crucial reforms, including an electoral bill, are passed, but is yet to fix a date for the election. 

($1 = 133.6000 Sri Lankan rupees) 

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)

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