Investing.com – Sri Lanka equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Investment Trust and Information Technology sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Colombo, the CSE All-Share added 0.31%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CSE All-Share were Huejay International Investments PLC (CM:HUEJ), which rose 24.35% or 9.30 points to trade at 47.50 at the close. Ceylon Beverage Holdings PLC (CM:BREW) added 20.67% or 119.90 points to end at 699.90 and Hikkaduwa Beach Resort Ltd (CM:CITH) was up 18.46% or 2.40 points to 15.40 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Paragon Ceylon PLC (CM:PARA), which lost 18.00% or 13.50 points to trade at 61.50 in late trade. Ceylon Printers PLC (CM:CPRT) declined 15.64% or 28.00 points to end at 151.00 and City Housing and Real Estate Company PLC (CM:CHOU) shed 9.80% or 1.00 points to 9.20.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 109 to 55 and 49 ended unchanged on the Colombo Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for May delivery was down 1.94% or 0.77 to $39.02 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May fell 1.70% or 0.69 to hit $39.78 a barrel, while the April Gold contract fell 0.42% or 5.20 to trade at $1218.80 a troy ounce.
GBP/LKR was down 0.49% to 206.620, while USD/LKR rose 0.02% to 146.470.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.06% at 96.12.