Investing.com – Sri Lanka equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, Diversified Holdings and Beverages & Tobacco sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Colombo, the CSE All-Share rose 0.03%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CSE All-Share were Selinsing PLC (CM:SELI), which rose 18.54% or 250.20 points to trade at 1600.00 at the close. Horana Plantations PLC (CM:HOPL) added 15.21% or 3.30 points to end at 25.00 and Paragon Ceylon PLC (CM:PARA) was up 7.86% or 4.30 points to 59.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Arpico Finance Company PLC (CM:ARPI), which lost 12.78% or 24.90 points to trade at 170.00 in late trade. Ceylon Hospitals PLC (CM:CHL) declined 10.33% or 11.30 points to end at 98.10 and Hapugastenne Plantations PLC (CM:HAPU) shed 10.26% or 2.00 points to 17.50.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 99 to 67 and 46 ended unchanged on the Colombo Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for July delivery was down 0.84% or 0.43 to $50.80 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in August fell 1.01% or 0.53 to hit $51.98 a barrel, while the August Gold contract fell 0.08% or 1.05 to trade at $1261.25 a troy ounce.
GBP/LKR was down 0.62% to 210.725, while USD/LKR fell 0.23% to 145.200.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.30% at 93.87.