Markets

Sri Lanka’s mid day shares edge up on wait and see approach

Monday March 20, 2023 12:15 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s shares edged up in mid day trade on Monday, adopting a wait and see approach as the crisis hit island expects an approval on the EFF towards the end of today.

“Investors are on a wait and see approach, as the International Monetary Fund is likely to approve our 2.9 billion dollar loan,” Ranjan Ranatunga of First Capital Holdings said.

All Share Price Index (ASPI) edged up 0.67 percent or 64.34 points to 9,734.76, while the most liquid share S&P SL20 was up 0.61 percent or 17.32 points to 2,857.43.

“Selling pressures have eased and now buying sentiments are improving sustaining the market at green,” Ranatunga said.

The market generated a turnover of 901 million rupees at 1130 hours.

“The wait and see approach has generated moderate levels of turnover,” Ranatunga said.

Top gainers during mid hours were Commercial Bank, Browns Investment and Access Engineering.

“Access Engineering, is an unusual top contributor and this is because interest has been generated after assurances had been given for the IMF deal and there is an assumption that multilateral projects are likely to begin with IMF coming to its conclusions,” Ranatunga said.

Commercial Bank has been seeing some attraction over the past few sessions, as it is the biggest private bank and with the IMF coming to an end, investors have been indulging in a premium share as there has been affirmations by the State that the economy may recover, Ranatunga said.

Sri Lanka’s growth will be contained at negative 3 percent in 2023 after a 12.4 percent shrinkage in the fourth quarter of 2022 and is expected to turn positive from next year, State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said.

Siyambalapitiya told reporters on Saturday March 18 that Sri Lanka can expect a “positive economy” in 2024. (Colombo/Mar20/2023)

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Energy

Sri Lanka cuts petrol to Rs318 a litre, kerosene to Rs245

Wednesday May 31, 2023 10:29 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka has cut petrol 92-Octane by 15 rupees to 318 rupees a litre and kerosene by 50 rupees to 245 rupees a litre from midnight May 31, the Ministry of Energy said.

Petrol 95 Octane will be raised by 20 rupees to 385 rupees, and Lanka Super Diesel 4 Star Euro 4 will be raised by 10 rupees to 340 rupees a litre.

Lanka Industrial Kerosene will be cut by 60 rupees a litre to 270 rupees.

Kerosene which is similar to jet fuel is usually the most expensive fuel in international markets followed by diesel and petrol is usually the cheapest.

Kerosene which is substantially cheaper than diesel is also used by buses to cut costs. (Colombo/May31/2023)

Free Speech

Sri Lanka opposition slams purported licence-cancelling broadcast authority

Wednesday May 31, 2023 9:28 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – A purported Broadcast Authority in Sri Lanka that will allegedly have the power to cancel licenses issued to the media have come under criticism from the opposition.

Opposition Tamil National Alliance (TNA) legislator and lawyer M A Sumanthiran told reporters on Wednesday May 31 that the bill on the establishment of this statutory body, if enacted, could violate several fundamental rights including the people’s right to information.

“Everyone knows that there have been many attempts in recent times to impose constraints on people’s right to information. This authority will decide which information is true and whether it can be broadcast,” he said.

The proposed act will also empower the authority to cancel broadcast licenses of those who already hold them, said Sumanthiran.

The MP said that a similar attempt to bring in such legislation in 1997 was thwarted after then opposition United National Party (UNP) MP Gamnii Athukorala challenged it in the Supreme Court, which determined on May 05 that year that the bill would need a referendum in addition to a two-thirds majority in parliament for it to become law.

“The Supreme Court determined that it went against Article 10 of the Constitution,” said Sumanthiran.

“What we can see is that this violates several fundamental rights, so we strongly oppose this bill.

“It’s not just the media, but the people’s right to information is also challenged by this,” said Sumanthiran.

Main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Harsha de Silva said the purported bill is undemocratic.

“If these people are given the power to cancel a license – this isn’t objective, it’s subjective, meaning four or five people will decide this,” said the MP.

Authorising a person to censor the content of a broadcast channel would be wholly undemocratic, he said.

“They tried to do this through the Counter Terrorism Act but failed, so it seems they’re now trying to bring it in with this,” said de Silva.

“We see it as a death blow to democracy,” he said, urging the government not to go ahead with it.

“If not, we will oppose it vehemently and fight for the people’s democratic rights,” he said.

Meanwhile, the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) said that, while it supports media freedom, the abuse of that freedom cannot be permitted.

SLPP general secretary and MP Sagara Kariyawasam told reporters on Wednesday that some media organisations abused their freedom to make false allegations against the party leadership.

“We are of the firm stand that the media must be independent and that that independence must be facilitated, but if anyone abuses media freedom as a sort of freedom of the wild ass, measures must be taken against that too,” said Kariyawasam.

“We saw how that freedom was enjoyed in the recent past making allegations with no basis. We saw how there were severe allegations made through the media that the Rajapaksas had engaged in thievery,” he said.

The MP claimed that the people voted in the UNP-led Yahapalana government in 2015 to investigate these allegations.

“But that government realised that there wasn’t even a single incident,” he said. (Colombo/May31/2023)

Markets

Sri Lanka rupee closes at 290.25/75 to dollar, bond yields steady

Wednesday May 31, 2023 5:26 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s rupee closed at 290.25/75 against the US dollar in the spot market on Wednesday, while bond yields were steady, dealers said.

The rupee opened at 293.25 /294.00 to the US dollar on Tuesday.

A bond maturing on 01.09.2027 closed at 26.70/90, following a steady from the open at 26.50/80 on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka’s rupee is appreciating amid negative private credit which has reduced outflows after the central bank hiked rates and stopped printing money. (Colombo/ May 30/2023)