The Ceylon News

Sri Lanka's bourse jumped 5.48
percent to a two-month high on Monday led by bargain-hunting on
select bluechips due to an expected economic recovery with
investors are increasingly confident of end to a 25-year old
war.
The rupee closed flat with intervention from a state bank.
The Colombo All-Share index .CSE surged 90.46 points to
1740.41, its highest close since Nov. 18. The bourse is up 13.6
percent in last five sessions and 15.8 percent so far this
year.
It fell 40.8 percent last year on earnings and economic woes
including high borrowing costs that hampered share prices,
because companies found new investment and expansion expensive.
"With the military progressing at a rapid pace, amid
declining interest rates and recovery in commodity prices,
investor confidence has risen," said Hussain Gani, associate
director at Asia Securities.
Sri Lanka's army chief has told media over the weekend that
the ground war could be completely finished by mid-April.
Top conglomerate John Keells Holdings JKH.CM rose 8.34
percent to 71 rupees, calculated on a weighted average.
Sri Lanka's top mobile operator Dialog Telekom DIAL.CM rose
5 percent to 5.25 rupees a share. It hit an all-time low on
Jan. 12, due to the launch of India's top mobile operator
Bharti Airtel Ltd. (BRTI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) as the fifth entrant to Sri
Lanka's market.
Top listed private lender Commercial Bank of Ceylon
COMB.CM jumped 18.12 percent after it announced it will hold
a state bank's $15 million deposit until a court case over a
disputed oil hedging contract is decided, traders said.
Market turnover was 263.9 million rupees ($2.3 million),
less than two-thirds of the 2008 daily average of 464 million
rupees.

The rupee closed unchanged at 113.85/113.95 per dollar
after a state bank intervened at 113.87 level, dealers said.
The rupee hit an all-time low of 114.15 a dollar in trading on
Jan. 5, while it hit a life closing low of 113.85/114.00 on
Friday. It has fallen 0.79 percent this year.
Three currency dealers Reuters spoke to said the central
bank called a meeting with bank treasuries on Monday to assure
them the rupee will not be devalued and to explain plans to
build up reserves and meet its external borrowing needs this
year.
Dealers said a weekend newspaper article suggesting the
bank would have to either devalue the rupee by 20 percent or go
for an IMF bailout package had raised some concerns in early
trade.

Nandalal Weerasinghe, chief economist at the central bank,
confirmed the meeting and said the report was false.
"There is no necessity for central bank to devalue the
currency by 20 percent and this is an erroneous,
politically-motivated news report," he said.
The interbank lending rate or call money rate CLIBOR
edged down to 15.252 percent from Friday's 15.776 percent.
For secondary market rates, please see <0#lkbmk=>.
($1=113.90 Sri Lankan Rupee)
(Editing by Bryson Hull)