Currency Trading

COLOMBO, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan stocks rose to a fourth consecutive life closing high on Thursday as investors bought select shares such as Lanka IOC and Sri Lanka Telecom , traders said.

The Colombo All Share index ended 0.34 percent firmer at 2,961.20 points, surpassing the previous life closing high of 2,951.23 points hit on Wednesday.

The bourse has hit a string of successive life closing highs in recent weeks, in part boosted by a raft of well-received corporate quarterly earnings results.

"The market is slightly up with buying of select shares," said Harsha Fernando CEO at SC Securities in Colombo.

"There was foreign buying of Lanka IOC," Fernando said.

The share rose 2.27 percent to 33.75 rupees a share as calculated on a weighted average. .

Virtual currency requires tough new regulations

IN this era when the cyber world easily messes up with reality, tough laws are necessary to tackle problems never before encountered. The "QQ" coin, a kind of virtual currency issued by Tencent, a Chinese internet service company, has become so popular in the country that the People's Bank of China has expressed concern over the coin's possible impact on the value of the yuan. Tencent is now the largest instant online messaging service provider in the country. It claims to have more than 220 million users, and its QQ coins can be easily purchased via banks, cell phones or "QQ" cards at an official price of one yuan (US$12.5 cents) per coin. Although there have been major debates since late 2006 over the legitimacy of virtual currencies, Tencent has been shunning criticism by claiming that its QQ coin was merely a regular commodity, and thus not a currency.

Asian Stocks Advance Led By Higher Oil Prices; Oil, Financial ...

(RTTNews) - The major markets in Asia are trading in the positive territory on Friday, led by oil related stocks and financial stocks. While Australian stock market is gaining led by oil related stocks such as Woodside and Santos, after prices of crude oil in overnight US market rose 3.5% to close at US$ 59.71 a barrel, stock markets in Japan and South Korea are gaining as a result of financial stocks such Mizuho Financial and Kookmin Bank. Merrill Lynch, in a recommendation to investors, has stated that share price of Mizuho Financial is cheaper in comparison to its steady earnings growth. Kookmin Bank, the largest lender in South Korea, has stated that it will pay higher dividend to its shareholders, raising its dividend yield for 12 months to more than 4%.

However, the markets in Malaysia, Hongkong, China, and Indonesia are trading in the negative territory, while markets in South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan are trading in the positive territory with marginal gains.

ICI year profit up 8 percent

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