Nov
23 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan stocks ended steady on Friday
as investors largely stayed on the sidelines with higher interest rates putting
a damper on trade and block deals pushing turnover.
The
Colombo Stock Exchange's main index ended just 0.01 percent, or 0.46 points, up
at 5,406.65.
Analysts
said investors had been moving in to fixed deposits from equities after the
central bank kept key policy rates at three-year highs after the market closed
on Friday.
The
yield on the 364-day T-bill gained for the sixth consecutive week at a weekly
auction on Wednesday, central bank data showed.
The
day's turnover was 803.1 million rupees ($6.16 million), with Distillers Company of Sri Lanka
accounting for 80 percent of it. Distillers gained 1.24 percent.
The
turnover was still shy of the year's daily average of 910 million rupees.
Foreign investors bought a net 35.7 million rupees of shares, extending the net
foreign inflow this year to 34.52 billion rupees.
The
rupee changed little to close at 130.10/18 to the dollar compared with
Thursday's close of 130.15/20 on bank dollar sales, dealers said. ($1 =
130.3500 Sri Lanka rupees) (Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez)
