Sri Lanka Tobacco Monopoly Top Dog in Bourse  

Source from:  Lanka Business Online  08/14/2013

Sri Lanka's Ceylon Tobacco Company Plc, a unit of British American Tobacco emerged as the most valuable company on the Colombo Stock Exchange overtaking John Keells Holdings, a diversified group.

Ceylon Tobacco Company had a stock market value of 224.8 billion rupees at the volume weighted closing price Tuesday, at 1,200.10 rupees per share, ahead of the 223.0 billion value of JKH at 260 rupees a share.

Susanthe Ratnayake, chairman of JKH, also chairs the board of CTC and is effectively at the helm of companies worth 448 billion rupees, not counting listed Keells units. CTC accounts for 9.4 percent of Sri Lanka's market cap and JKH 9.3 percent.

CTC has been running neck and neck with JKH in recent days, frequently overtaking its rival in intra-day trading.

CTC has a smaller free float than JKH and become a darling of foreign investors of late driving the price up, but earnings have kept pace.

The firm had been able to increase profits despite repeated tax increases and steady volume drops with a sufficient margin accruing to the firm with each hike. Enditem