Investing.com – Sri Lanka equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Diversified Holdings and Palm Oil sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Colombo, the CSE All-Share added 0.25%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CSE All-Share were SMB Leasing PLC (CM:SEMB), which rose 25.00% or 0.1000 points to trade at 0.5000 at the close. Beruwala Resorts PLC (CM:BERU) added 16.67% or 0.100 points to end at 0.700 and HDFC Bank of Sri Lanka (CM:HDFC) was up 13.46% or 3.50 points to 29.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Amana Takaful Life Ltd (CM:ANTK), which lost 17.82% or 1.80 points to trade at 8.30 in late trade. Blue Diamonds Jewellery Worldwide PLC (CM:BLUE) declined 16.67% or 0.100 points to end at 0.500 and Nanda Investments and Finance PLC (CM:NAND) shed 11.21% or 4.80 points to 38.00.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 112 to 54 and 43 ended unchanged on the Colombo Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for October delivery was down 0.03% or 0.02 to $67.84 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in October fell 0.21% or 0.16 to hit $74.62 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract fell 0.67% or 8.10 to trade at $1195.20 a troy ounce.
GBP/LKR was down 0.21% to 206.815, while USD/LKR rose 0.15% to 160.790.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.26% at 95.25.