Sri Lankan stocks edged up on Friday, rising for a fourth straight session to hit a near two-week high, led by hotel and telecom shares, but brokers said investors may wait for some direction on interest rates after a $750 million bond sale by a state-owned bank.
The main share index edged up 0.09 percent, or 4.96 points, to close at 5,749.46, its highest since Sept. 3.
Shares in Dialog Axiata PLC rose 1.25 percent to 8.10 rupees a share, while Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings PLC gained more than 3 percent to 67.50 rupees.
National Savings Bank's (NSB) 5-year bond was priced to yield 8.875 percent, tighter than the initial talk of 9.25 percent. Dealers said it was still expensive compared with other Sri Lankan debt paper.
"Everybody is looking at interest rates more than anything else, because the NSB bond price is very expensive," a stockbroker said on condition of anonymity.
Foreign investors were net buyers of 262.2 million rupees ($1.98 million) worth of shares on Friday, extending year-to-date net foreign inflows to 19.37 billion rupees. Friday's turnover was 979.6 million rupees, more than this year's daily average of about 883 million rupees.
market up 13.09.2013
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