Investing.com – Sri Lanka equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Motors, Plantations and Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Colombo, the CSE All-Share added 0.05%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CSE All-Share were Guardian Capital Partners PLC (CM:WAPO), which rose 15.11% or 4.70 points to trade at 35.80 at the close. Beruwala Resorts PLC (CM:BERU) added 11.11% or 0.100 points to end at 1.000 and Asia Asset Finance Ltd (CM:ASAS) was up 7.14% or 0.100 points to 1.500 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Paragon Ceylon PLC (CM:PARA), which lost 24.64% or 17.00 points to trade at 52.00 in late trade. EB Creasy and Company PLC (CM:EBCR) declined 23.98% or 299.70 points to end at 950.30 and Serendib Land PLC (CM:SLND) shed 21.14% or 351.20 points to 1310.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 104 to 74 and 72 ended unchanged on the Colombo Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for March delivery was up 0.30% or 0.16 to $52.91 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in March rose 0.53% or 0.29 to hit $55.37 a barrel, while the February Gold contract fell 0.45% or 5.35 to trade at $1192.45 a troy ounce.
GBP/LKR was up 0.23% to 190.330, while USD/LKR fell 0.13% to 150.280.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.37% at 100.28.