All Blogs
Wider Margins
Oct 31, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank of Ceylon has reported profits of 1. 4 billion rupees for the September 2010 quarter, up 46 percent from a year earlier, on stronger interest margins and loan growth. Revenues rose 0.2 percent to 10.55 billion rupees. The bank reported earnings per share of 3. 75 […]
Sri Lanka farm gate coconut prices up 26-pct over two months
Oct 31, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s raw coconuts prices hit another high this week pushing average farm gate prices up 26. 5 percent over the past two months, as import protection remained tight amid higher global prices for substitutes. At Thursday’s auctions in Colombo average prices rose 894 rupees to 33,910 rupees for a […]
Connectivity
Oct 31, 2010 (LBO)- Improved connectivity is an essential precondition for trade in goods and services, hopefully better governed once the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between India and Sri Lanka is completed and signed. The already large movements of people between the two countries will only grow when multimodal and lower-cost options are restored and […]
Airlines relish rebound after two lean years
PARIS, October 31, 2010 (AFP) – Commercial airlines in the United States, Europe and Asia are at last relishing a rebound in their financial fortunes, announcing profit spurts after two very lean years. The civil aviation sector in recent months has enjoyed a pronounced pick-up in both passenger and freight demand, with airlines welcoming the […]
Growth Area
Oct 30, 2010 (LBO) – A new Sri Lankan investment fund that opened for subscription Friday is targeting the banking sector which is seen doing well given the need for funding to fuel an economic boom, officials said. “We expect many new projects to need financing in the fast growing sectors of the economy. ” […]
Thai Crackdown
BANGKOK, October 30, 2010 (AFP) – Thai authorities have arrested 61 Tamil migrants from Sri Lanka, police said Saturday, in the second such crackdown in recent weeks. After a tip-off, 114 people were rounded up in the southern province of Songkhla on Thursday, but some were freed because they were able to present valid travel […]
Garden Path
Oct 30, 2010 (LBO) – Investors in Sri Lanka’s failed high-yield financial firms have lost more money than they should have by delaying liquidation and pressuring someone else to put additional cash to cover their losses, a legal expert has said. Neomal Gunewardene, partner of Nithya Partners, a law firm, said depositors in failed financial […]
” wedding ceremony
October 30, 2010 (AFP) – The Maldivian government has apologised to a European couple abused as “swine” and “infidels” during what was supposed to be a romantic renewal of wedding vows in the Indian Ocean archipelago. Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed “personally apologised” to the couple in a telephone conversation on Saturday afternoon, his office said […]
Sri Lanka stocks close up 1.56-pct
Oct 29, (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s stocks closed up Friday, with gains in banking sector stocks owing to buying by institutional and high-net-worth individual investors, brokers said. The Colombo All Share Index rose 1.56 percent (102.31 points) to 6,678.05 points, while the Milanka Index of more liquid stocks rose 1. 81 percent (129.07 points) to […]
Yard Prospects
Oct 29, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Colombo Dockyard delivered the second of a pair of passenger vessels for an Indian customer but warned profitability could dip this year owing to the effects of recession and growing competition. The island’s 30-year ethnic war ended in May 2009 leading to the removal of marine war-risk insurance […]