Author: lbostgadmin
Standard Numbers
Dec 01, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Standard Chartered Bank unit has reported a net profit increase of 55 percent to 1,803 million rupees in the 9-months ended September 2008, while revenues climbed 29 percent to 7,338 million rupees. The bank had gross assets of 78.9 billion rupees and net assets of 12.7 billion rupees […]
Citi Profits
Dec 01, 2008 (LBO) – Profits of the Sri Lanka unit of Citibank soared 134 percent in the 9-months to September 2008 to 1,276 million rupees, driven by a steep increase in fee income, while revenues grew 38.9 percent to 2,247 million rupees, its interim accounts showed.Citibank Sri Lanka had gross assets of 20.7 billion […]
Sri Lanka shares resume slide, Ceylinco Insurance boosts trading volumes
Dec 01, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan shares resumed their downward march Monday after two days of marginal gains last week, with a large transaction in Ceylinco Insurance propping up trading volumes, brokers said.Corporate earnings in the last quarter are down while the crash in commodity prices and high inflation and interest rates are seen […]
Sri Lanka EPF under fire at 50 years, calls for independent management
Nov 30, 2008 (LBO) – Calls for independent management for Sri Lanka’s state-managed Employees Provident Fund are gaining more support, with less than half of respondents to a survey saying returns were “reasonable”, an influential weekly has said.Fifty years after the creation of EPF The Sunday Times newspaper said only 45.95 percent of respondents to […]
Still There
Nov 30, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s petroleum ministry has not yet been taken over by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, following a court ruling by the Supreme Court, a media report said Sunday. The Sunday Times newspaper, quoting petroleum minister A H M Fowzie said he had not received any instructions from the country’s president. The […]
Sri Lanka resumes advance on Tiger HQ
November 30, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan security forces have resumed their offensive to capture the political capital of Tamil Tiger rebels after heavy monsoon rains began subsiding, the defence ministry said Sunday.“The air sorties were made in support of the advancing 57th division infantry battalions,” the ministry said. Flooding had stalled the military push […]
India interior minister resigns over Mumbai attacks
MUMBAI, November 30, 2008 (AFP) – India’s interior minister resigned Sunday as anger grew over intelligence failures leading up to the attacks on Mumbai and investigators focused on a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group. Home Minister Shivraj Patil said he took “moral responsibility” for the assault by heavily-armed militants which left nearly 200 people dead and […]
Sri Lanka should stop intervention before it is too late: economist
Nov 29, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should stop a self-destructive sterilized intervention cycle of the national currency and move to stabilize the economy, to prevent an even more dramatic fall of the currency, an economist has said. Kamikaze Before mid-September when the central bank started a sterilized intervention cycle and started putting pressure on […]
Battle for Mumbai ends, last militants killed
MUMBAI, Nov 29, 2008 (AFP) – Commandos killed three holdout gunmen Saturday in Mumbai’s Taj Hotel, bringing an end to a two-day Islamic militant assault on India’s financial capital that left at least 155 dead, including 21 foreigners. The final attack on the historic seafront hotel was marked by heavy gunfire and loud explosions that […]
Hedge Saga
Nov 29, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Standard Chartered Bank unit says it was not directly affected by a court order which halted payments due under a hedge it arranged for a state-run oil distributor and said it welcomed a probe into the deal.Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Friday ordered the country’s central bank to probe […]
Floods drive 231,000 from their homes in Sri Lanka
November 27, 2008 (AFP) – At least two government soldiers drowned and more than 230,000 civilians were driven from their homes in Sri Lanka’s embattled north Thursday after monsoon floods and a mini-cyclone, officials said.The Disaster Management centre said the northern peninsula of Jaffna was the worst hit, with 2,032 homes completely destroyed and another […]
Sri Lanka November inflation falls to 16.3-pct
Nov 28, 2008 (LBO) – Consumer inflation in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo fell to 16.3 percent in November from 20.2 percent in October, while prices fell by an absolute 0.7 percent in the 28 days of the month, the government’s statistics office said. The moving average of the index, which is smoothed over two years […]