Category:
Sri Lanka Tata unit shrugs off wage hike cost
Nov 06, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Watawala Plantations said September quarter group net profit fell 78 percent to 9.4 million rupees from a year ago but commodity prices were seen strong with a global economic recovery.The firm, a unit of India’s Tata group, said in a stock exchange filing that sales during the September […]
Awaiting Arrest
JEDDAH, November 6, 2009 (AFP) – Larita Delacruz sits on the concrete base of a bridge pylon, rubs her swollen belly and explains her predicament: she is five months pregnant with twins, and wants to go home to give birth. But after four years of working as a maid in Saudi Arabia, she lacks both […]
Consumer Sales
Nov 06, 2009 (LBO) – Cargills (Ceylon) group which runs Sri Lanka’s largest retail chain said profits rose 35 percent to 139 million rupees in the September 2009 quarter from a year earlier, and was planning a billion rupees in new investments in the current year. Last year, the firm had a 73 million rupee-one […]
Wider Net
NEW YORK, November 6, 2009 (AFP) – Law enforcement officials in New York announced Thursday charges against 14 people in a widening probe into the largest ever alleged hedge-fund insider trading scheme on Wall Street.US Attorney Preet Bharara and New York’s assistant FBI director Joseph Demarest said the accused took part in insider trading schemes […]
Broad Band
CHENNAI, Nov 06, 2009 (LBO) – Despite improving quality, Sri Lankan fixed and mobile broadband internet users receive less bandwidth than ‘advertised’, while web hosting costs are also higher than developed countries, a telecom study has revealed. “It’s very clear that broadband speeds advertised by providers were more than what they could offer,” Chanuka Wattegama, […]
Sri Lanka boat people leader a known trafficker: Colombo
November 6, 2009 (AFP) – The leader of a boat of Sri Lankan asylum seekers held in Indonesia is a known people smuggler previously deported from Canada, the government said Friday, a charge he has strongly denied.Alex, who emerged as the spokesman for the 255 Sri Lankans whose boat was detained last month en route […]
90,000 displaced in Sri Lanka conflict return home: UN
GENEVA, November 6, 2009 (AFP) – About a third of those displaced during the conflict between Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tigers have returned home over the past three months, the UN refugee agency said Friday.“Some 90,000 internally displaced people have returned to their villages in Sri Lanka’s north and east over the past […]
‘s stay
JAKARTA, November 6, 2009 (AFP) – Indonesia extended by a week on Friday a deadline for an Australian customs ship loaded with 78 protesting Sri Lankan asylum seekers to leave its territory.The extension would allow the Oceanic Viking, which has been moored on Bintan island since last month, to stay while a solution is found […]
Sri Lanka central bank to relax exchange controls
Nov 05, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank is planning to relax exchange controls allowing up to 500,000 US dollars to be taken out for investment purposes without approval of the central bank, a media report said. Before the creation of the Central Bank in 1950, Sri Lanka had a currency board with an […]
Sri Lanka stocks close 1.6-pct lower
Nov 05, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s stocks closed 1.65 percent lower Thursday, falling for the third straight day in a continuing correction, despite banks reporting strong earnings in the September quarter season, brokers said. Despite heading for polls in the first quarter of 2010, the government opted to have a ‘vote on account’ instead […]
Navigation Move
Nov 05, 2009 (LBO) – Colombo port has re-opened its northern entrance channel which had been closed for years owing to the threat of attacks by Tamil Tiger separatists who were defeated by government forces in May. But it had been completely closed since the airport attack. The Tamil separatists’ naval wing, the Sea Tigers, […]
Profit Margins
Nov 05, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Sampath Bank group’s net profit for the September 2009 quarter rose 35.8 percent from a year earlier, as margins improved with higher lending to government. Gross assets grew to 153.7 billion rupees (up 8.0 percent) and net assets to 10.9 billion rupees p 10.2 percent. Revenues rose 10.5 […]