Economics
Guardian Fund Favors Sri Lanka Banks, Retail Stocks on Growth
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Guardian Fund Management Ltd., which oversees Sri Lanka’s largest listed investment trust, is betting on bank, retail, leisure and construction stocks on optimism the end of the island’s 26-year civil war will bolster economic growth and corporate profits.
The Colombo All-Share Index has more than tripled since the war ended in May 2009 as the economy’s recovery spurred a near 10-fold increase in daily trading volumes. The gauge rose 96 percent last year, the second-biggest gainer among 90 global indexes tracked by Bloomberg after Mongolia’s MSE Top 20 Index. Companies on the Sri Lankan measure are valued at a price earnings multiple of 22.6 times, Asia’s second-most expensive after New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index.