Author: lbostgadmin
Currency Option
Nov 24, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank of Ceylon is now offering Non-Resident Foreign Currency (NRFC) accounts in Chinese yuan following its inclusion as a ‘designated currency’ by the Central Bank. A statement said the move comes several weeks after the bank began offering customers the option of transacting in yuan for export […]
Expressway Expertise
Nov 24, 2011 (LBO) – Japan will provide funding for an electronic toll collection ‘touch-and-go’ card system on Sri Lanka’s first expressway that is to be officially opened on November 27. The 95 kilometre southern expressway, linking the capital Colombo with the southern port town of Galle, is designed for 100 kilometres per hour speeds […]
Sri Lanka stocks plunge, rates up
Nov 24, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan shares tumbled Thursday, crashing below the 6,000 point mark amid uncertainty among investors about government policy after takeover of businesses and a snap devaluation of the rupee. The main All Share Price Index fell 2.79 percent (168.61 points) to 5,886.75, while the more liquid Milanka index fell 2. […]
Sri Lanka should reveal data on interventions, forex reserves: civil activist
Nov 24, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should reveal data on interventions and foreign exchange reserves and the rationale for a step devaluation of the rupee instead of a market determined float, a civil society activist has said. Chandra Jayaratne, a former head of Sri Lanka’s largest business chamber, said the Central Bank should reveal […]
Sri Lanka overnight rates hit two year high
Nov 24, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s overnight gilt backed repos rose as much as 8. 35 percent and call rates hit a two year high of 9.25 percent Thursday, dealers said, as liquidity tightened amid defence of a dollar peg. Stocks closed 2.7 percent lower. Sentiment in Sri Lanka’s financial markets have also been […]
Sri Lanka private sector urged to increase investment
Nov 23, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s private sector has been called upon to make big investments using tax savings and gains from incentives given by government, and banks urged to lend more to small business. Treasury secretary P B Jayasundera said the government was managing to maintain public investment at around six percent of […]
Sri Lanka unemployed graduates take aim at fresh tax grab
No 22, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s unemployed graduates who have received a ‘free’ education at at tax payer’s funded universities are taking aim at another tax grab with a lifetime job and pensions in an already bloated state sector, according to media reports. Others who earn degrees with their own money from affiliated private […]
India power ministry drops Ernst & Young for evaluation errors
NEW DELHI, Nov 23 (AsiaPulse) – India’s Power Ministry has banned international consulting firm Ernst & Young (E&Y) from taking up any further assignments in the sector after anomalies in the evaluation of bids for the Sasan project were highlighted in a report by power sector expert P.S Bami. “We issued a show-cause notice to […]
Sri Lanka sugar plantation takeover seen “illegal”
Nov 23, 2011 (LBO) – A listed Sri Lankan sugar plantation that is among businesses taken over by government under a new expropriation law has said the seizure was illegal as it does not fall within the ambit of the new regulation. The statement said action by the officers of the state to enter the […]
Sri Lanka Lankem buys boutique hotel
Nov 23, 2011 (LBO) – Lankem Ceylon said it bought control of Galle Fort Hotel, a boutique hotel in Sri Lankan’s southern port town of Galle, for 772 million rupees. Sri Lanka is experiencing a boom in tourism with the end of the island’s 30-year ethnic war in 2009. The acquisition of 100 percent of […]
Lease Trend
Nov 23, 2011 (LBO) – People’s Leasing Co., Sri Lanka’s largest leasing company, said September 30, 2011 quarter net profit rose 65 percent to 790 million rupees helped by gains from vehicle sales and Islamic finance and lower provisioning. Earnings per share rose 73 percent to 64 cents in the quarter from 37 cents a […]
Sri Lanka stocks end down 0.4-pct
Nov 23, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan shares closed weaker again Wednesday with trading also drying up amid uncertainty about government policy towards investors despite mostly healthy quarterly earnings, brokers said. Some lands of listed plantations companies have also been taken over to be re-distributed among small farmers. The government also devalued the rupee by […]