Around 75 firms to list in Colombo Stock Exchange

Sri Lanka's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Tuesday it aims to boost the Colombo Stock Exchange's capitalization by 45 percent to a 3.3 trillion rupees ($ 29.67 billion) by the end of 2011.

Most growth will come from listing up to an additional 75 companies to try to boost liquidity and increase the proportion of shares regularly traded, SEC Director General Malik Cader told Reuters in an interview.

"There will be one trillion (rupee) in new market cap by 2011," Cader said. "This is a very easy and reachable target for the simple reason being the listing of anything between 60 to 75 companies," he said.

Five large companies in which the Government has a large stake, will be listed in a move to replicate on a smaller scale India's success in raising more than US $ nine billion from the sale of stakes in state companies.

Local retail investors and Government funds have been aggressive buyers of the market.

Cader said 35 finance companies and some small private firms will be listed by June. All insurance firms will be made to list to help increase liquidity and transparency.

The current market capitalization is 2.3 trillion rupees ($20 billion), having doubled in the first 10 months of 2010.

"We expect a lot of foreign inflows particularly next year," Cader said.

To entice overseas money, the SEC might consider increasing the foreign holding limit in the stock market slightly from the current 20 percent limit.

Reuters