All Blogs
Hedging Game
Sept 11, 2007 (LBO) – Lanka IOC, the Sri Lanka unit of the Indian Oil Corporation, has started to hedge oil imports with positive initial results, an official said. LIOC expects oil prices to ease towards the latter part of the year. “We have started to hedge imports in a cautious manner,” Lanka IOC managing […]
Sri Lanka minister lashes out at inflation creators
Sept 11, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s consumer affairs minister, cornered by rising prices and a falling rupee caused by money printing, lashed out at a Marxist party that helped engineer a collapse of government finances. Except for a handful of years like 2003, the Sri Lanka rupee has been on a free fall since […]
Sri Lanka markets open after weekend, rupee flat
Sept 10, 2007 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka rupee was quoted at 113.25/28 flat against the spot dollar Monday with overnight call money peaking at 16.00 before easing to 14.00 percent in liquid conditions, dealers said. The six month forward dollar fell slightly to 120.95 levels from an earlier level of 121.11. Dealers were closely […]
Operating Rules
Sept 10, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank plans to enforce tough new mandatory rules next year that include provisions to encourage ‘whistleblowers’, linking executive pay to performance and discouraging the practice of inter-locking directorates. The new corporate governance rules seek to separate the functions of the chairman, who must be one of the […]
Finance Rating
Sept 10, 2007 (LBO) – Lanka Rating Agency (LRA) has lowered the outlook of Ceylinco Investments and Realty’s (CIR) long-term BB1 rating from stable to negative. . “The ratings reflect the Company’s weakening asset quality, frail financial performance and low capitalization,” LRA said. “The negative outlook is premised on LRA’s concerns about the escalating interest-rate-environment, […]
Support Rating
Sept 10, 2007 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings Lanka has confirmed DFCC Vardhana Bank Limited’s (DVB) National Long-term rating at ‘AA-(lka)’ with a stable outlook.“The principal factor supporting DVB’s rating is the strong implied support assumed to be available from its parent DFCC Bank,” Fitch Rating said. “DVB is envisaged to play an important strategic role […]
Sri Lanka shares close lower
Sept 10, 2007 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka shares closed lower Monday after rising at the opening with interest in John Keells Holdings helping to improve turnover. The market turnover was over 375 million rupees while the All Share Index closed two points lower at 2,544.24. The Milanka Index closed down 2.65 points at 3,458.77. […]
Contempt Order
Sept 10, 2007 (LBO) – The head of Sri Lanka’s consumer authority has been ordered to resign by the Supreme Court over the implementation of a previous order on cooking gas pricing. . Updated Consumer Authority Chairman Sarath Wijesinghe was told he was not fit to take up any government post, an official said. Witnesses […]
Prison Life
Sept 10, 2007 (LBO) – A Sri Lankan teenager Rizana Nafeek who is on death row is being treated well by her jailors and was hoping an appeal of her sentence will succeed, media reports said. Sometimes prisoners are kept on death row for years, before suddenly being taken and beheaded. “Rizana was so confident […]
Central bankers warn sub-prime crisis could hit whole US economy
BASEL, Switzerland, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) – The crisis in the US housing market risks spreading to the whole of the nation’s economy, European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet said Monday on behalf of world central bankers.Trichet was speaking in his capacity as head of the G10 group of central bankers from industrialised and emerging […]