Tuesday 5 January 2016

Sri Lankan shares end at over 1-week low; financials drag

Reuters: Sri Lankan shares fell for a second straight session and closed at their lowest level in more than one week on Tuesday as weakness in financial stocks continued.

The main stock index fell 0.33 percent, or 22.32 points, to close at 6,845.30, its lowest close since Dec. 28.

"The banking sector is down due to higher costs following the SRR (statutory reserve ratio) rate hike and the expected slower credit growth on top of the increased taxes from the budget," said Danushka Samarasinghe, research head at Softlogic Stockbrokers.

Foreign investors sold a net 296.5 million rupees ($2.1 million) worth of equities on Tuesday. They sold a net 4.43 billion rupees worth of equities in 2015, compared with a net foreign inflow of 22.07 billion rupees in the previous year.

The day's turnover stood at 560.8 million rupees.

The central bank on Wednesday raised the SRR by 150 basis points to 7.50 percent, to curb the excess credit growth and to stabilise the rupee hovering near record lows and slow private sector credit growth.

Lender DFCC Bank Plc fell 3.45 percent and Hatton National Bank lost 1.2 percent. 

($1 = 144.2000 Sri Lankan rupees) 

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Anand Basu)

Renuka Agri buys more of Renuka Organics

The Board of Directors of Renuka Agri Foods PLC by their Circular Resolution dated December 31 2015, has approved the subscription to 1,666,250 new Ordinary Shares at Rs.140 per Share of Renuka Organics (Private) Limited, a 100% fully owned Subsidiary of the Company before March 31 2016 for a total consideration of Rs.233,275,000.

After the said issue the company will continue to hold 100% of the issued shares of Renuka Organics (Private) Limited.
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