Investing.com – Sri Lanka equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Construction & Engineering, Information Technology and Land & Property sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Colombo, the CSE All-Share declined 0.28% to hit a new 52-week low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CSE All-Share were People’s Merchant Finance PLC (CM:PMB), which rose 21.28% or 2.00 points to trade at 11.40 at the close. Central Investments and Finance PLC (CM:CIFL) added 14.29% or 0.100 points to end at 0.800 and Swarnamahal Financial Services PLC (CM:SWAR) was up 14.29% or 0.100 points to 0.800 in late trade.
Biggest losers included EB Creasy and Company PLC (CM:EBCR), which lost 24.03% or 347.90 points to trade at 1100.00 in late trade. Good Hope PLC (CM:GOOD) declined 22.58% or 350.00 points to end at 1200.00 and Serendib Land PLC (CM:SLND) shed 21.67% or 360.00 points to 1301.20.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 108 to 72 and 48 ended unchanged on the Colombo Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for May delivery was up 0.56% or 0.27 to $48.31 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in May rose 0.51% or 0.26 to hit $50.90 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract fell 0.16% or 2.05 to trade at $1247.65 a troy ounce.
GBP/LKR was up 0.21% to 189.875, while USD/LKR fell 0.05% to 151.740.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 99.52.