Investors buy into blue chips

As investors poured money into blue chip companies, the ASI index of all listed companies surged past the 5,000 mark late afternoon trading yesterday.

The benchmark index which tracks the movement of all listed companies finally closed at 4999.05, up 56 points (+1.1 percent) for the day.

The ASI's peak for the day was 5015.16.

The gains were attributable to price rises in John Keells Holdings (up Rs 5.50 to close at Rs 240.00 on business of Rs 66 million), Sri Lanka Telecom (share gained 75 cents on turnover of Rs 3 million to close at Rs 37.00), Richard Pieris (up Rs 8.75 to Rs 108.50 on turnover of Rs 184 million). Bukit Darah was the other large cap company to close up Rs 100.75 to Rs 4799.75, though turnover on the company shares were low at just Rs 1.4 million.

Total turnover for the day was Rs 2.3 billion with Dialog and NDB Bank accounting for Rs 176 million and Rs 114 million of business respectively. First Guardian Equities