Bloomberg: Sri Lanka has the world’s best performing stock market

With growing optimism that Sri Lanka’s Tamil insurgency may be coming to an end, the markets are taking notice: The Colombo All-Share Index, Sri Lanka’s benchmark, fell 2.6 percent today, trimming its 2009 gain to 17 percent. Gains in the index, the best performer this year among 90 tracked by Bloomberg, came as a military ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

With growing optimism that Sri Lanka's Tamil insurgency may be coming to an end, the markets are taking notice:

With growing optimism that Sri Lanka’s Tamil insurgency may be coming to an end, the markets are taking notice:

The Colombo All-Share Index, Sri Lanka’s benchmark, fell 2.6 percent today, trimming its 2009 gain to 17 percent. Gains in the index, the best performer this year among 90 tracked by Bloomberg, came as a military offensive drove Tamil rebels to an area of less than 300 square kilometers (120 square miles) in the northeast. The military said late yesterday soldiers captured the largest training base for Tamil Tiger suicide bombers.

More from Bloomberg TV here. 

Sri Lanka is planning a partnership with India’s equity markets to boost trading later this year. I wouldn’t suggest moving all your money to Colombo quite yet though. Analysts say Sri Lanka’s tea and textile industries have yet to fully feel the effect of falling global demand.

For more people, companies, and countries that are making money during the crisis, check out our List. Arvind Panagariya explains how India has managed to survive the downturn here.

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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