Economic

වාහන ආනයනය කිරීමේ තහනම තවත් වසරක කාලයක් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශය තීරණය කර ඇත.

The Colombo Stock Market showed resilience yesterday with both indices finishing on the up after a rocky day, with profit taking and turnover crossing the now standard Rs. 3 billion mark.

Turnover at the Colombo stock market topped the Rs. 5.5 billion mark yesterday as investors continued to savour listed equities on the back of recent gains.

In an attempt to return Colombo Port operations to normal, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) is in the midst of setting up an improved contingency plan and has offered all perks to draw retired crane operators to offset a spree of staff shortages caused by COVID-19.

Dialog Axiata PLC yesterday said it has managed to consolidate their year-to-date (YTD) performance with a stable third quarter whilst investing further to grow its business.

The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) will issue ‘Safe and Secure’ compliance certification next week to over 40 hotels keen to resume operations post-COVID-19.

Reuters: Shares posted losses for a second straight session on Friday, weighed by industrials and communication services stocks.

Seamless running of the Colombo Port could be running into a squall, the shipping industry warned yesterday, as operations slowed due to the impact of dozens of State-run Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) employees testing COVID-19 positive, at least 200 others ordered to self-quarantine, and about 35 ships prevented from unloading cargo.

The Central Bank has extended the debt moratorium offered to COVID-hit businesses and individuals by a further six months from October, following the spread of the second wave of the pandemic in the country.

Money Capital Markets and State Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivard Cabraal told Parliament yesterday.

Sri Lankan privately-owned carrier FitsAir has started a dedicated freighter service to cater to post-COVID air cargo demand.To serve this purpose, FitsAir recently added a P2C A321 and converted it into a freighter and has concluded cargo flights to the Maldives and Dubai. The P2C A321 converted freighter aircraft can carry 20 tons within a five-hour range.

The Central Bank has extended the debt moratorium offered to COVID-hit businesses and individuals by a further six months from October, following the spread of the second wave of the pandemic in the country.

Despite the drastic economic downturn, Sampath Bank said it has recorded a profit before tax (PBT) of Rs. 6.99 billion and a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs. 5.09 billion for the nine months ended 30 September 2020, reflecting a decline of 33.1% and 22% respectively from a year earlier.

The Government yesterday via an Extraordinary Gazette set a maximum retail price (MRP) on a kilogram of white sugar.

In a major step, the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) has launched an action plan to address key areas relating to the process of listing a company on the Colombo Bourse with the objective of enhancing its efficiency thereby better serving the funding requirements of companies belonging to both state and private sectors.

Gains from government securities, foreign exchange (FX) swap trading and FX trading activities have enabled the Commercial Bank of Ceylon Group (ComBank) to mitigate to some extent, the severity of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on profits in a period of reduced interest income and substantially higher impairment provisioning, compared to the corresponding quarter of the last year.

Dialog Axiata, Sri Lanka’s premier connectivity provider, announced the launch of 5G roaming that would enable Dialog subscribers to roam on 5G networks while overseas.

Sri Lanka’s foremost conglomerate, John Keells Holdings (JKH), showed resilient performance in second quarter as Group EBITDA excluding Leisure grew by 15% and businesses displayed strong recovery momentum.