Sri Lanka Tobacco Firm Gains on Diversified JKH

Source from:  Lanka Business Online  08/02/2013

Sri Lanka's Ceylon Tobacco Company, a unit of British American Tobacco closed in on top capitalized John Keells Holdings Thursday, briefly overtaking the diversified group in intra-day trading.

At a closing weighted average price of 1,200.80 rupees per share CTC was valued at 224.9 billion rupees, just three billion rupees shy of JKH's stock market value of 227.9 billion rupees.

CTC gained 24 billion rupees in value, partly helping drive the Colombo market up 1.9 percent.

Diversified JKH's profits fell slightly in the June quarter hurt by hotels and logistics.

The single product CTC is yet to report profits in the June quarter.

The state raised taxes on cigarettes yesterday but recent price hikes have contained an element of revenue gain for the tobacco firm though there have been volume losses.

CTC has a virtual monopoly except for smuggled products and so-called 'white beedies', which is a down market product. Enditem