Sri Lanka stock exchange in talks with LSE

The London Stock Exchange is in talks with Sri Lanka’s Securities and Exchange Commission over allowing trading of some of the island nation’s shares on the London bourse and vice-versa, a regulator official said on Monday. An agreement will help Sri Lanka’s selected blue chips to be traded in London, opening up its market to foreign investors. “This is still in an initial stage. We hope to progress after the discussion and if it happens, it will be a great opportunity for Sri Lanka,” Malik Cader, director-general of the SEC, said on the sidelines of a national economic forum in Colombo. Cader declined to comment on the time frame for the process. The LSE, which was forced to abort its $3.5-billion merger with Canada’s TMX Group last week, has links with Sri Lanka after buying Sri Lankan technology company, Millennium IT. The SEC is encouraging foreign companies to list on the Colombo Stock Exchange to get access to trade their shares in the London market. Shares on the LSE ended higher today aided by oil stocks. Gains were limited by weaker banks after Standard & Poor’s warned a potential Greek debt deal would amount to a default. The FTSE 100 index added 27.78 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 6017.54, closing above 6000 for the first time since mid-May.