By Hiran H.Senewiratne
The CSE moved up marginally yesterday with the announced Expolanka Holdings’ Rs 8.19 cash dividend per share the previous day. The stock market rallied because the Expolanka dividend payment is quite attractive at this juncture, market analysts said.
Sri Lanka’s giant logistics multinational and most valuable listed entity Expolanka Holdings yesterday thrilled investors with a hefty Rs. 8.19 per share cash interim dividend for financial year 2023, market analysts added.
In the financial year 2022 Expolanka paid a dividend of Rs. 1.17 per share and 50 cents per share in financial year 2021. The interim dividend was announced after the market closed yesterday. Expolanka in the financial year 2022 announced stellar results amidst global and local shocks, reinforcing its resilience and fruition of its recent strategies, market watchers said.
Accordingly, the Expolanka share price appreciated by Rs 13.50 or 7.8 per cent. During the day the share price shot up to Rs 180.75 from Rs 172.25.
Amid those developments both indices moved upwards. The All-Share Price Index went up by 43.9 points and S and P SL20 rose by 21.6 points. Turnover stood at Rs 1.1 billion with two crossings. Those crossings were reported in Commercial Bank, which crossed 980,000 shares to the tune of Rs 49 million, shares traded at Rs 50 and HNB crossed 502,000 shares to the tune of Rs 40.1 million; its shares traded at Rs 80.
In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; Expolanka Holdings Rs 386 million (2.1 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 141 million (16.9 million shares traded), HNB Rs 117 million (1.4 million shares traded), Royal Ceramic Rs 93.8 million (3.3 million shares traded), Lanka IOC Rs 39.9 million (582,000 shares traded), JKH Rs 28 million (230,000 shares traded) and LOLC Holdings Rs 23 million (54000 shares traded). During the day 43.7 million share volumes changed hands in 9500 share transactions.
Yesterday, the Central Bank announced the US dollar buying rate as Rs 356.67 and the selling rate as Rs 367.39.Commercial Banks were offering US dollars for telegraphic transfer at around Rs 368 to Rs 370 dollars for small transactions as the country is facing severe forex shortages.
Banks offered to buy inward remittances at Rs 357.90. A ‘guidance’ rate for interbank transactions announced by the Central Bank was also unchanged at Rs 360.90 the previous day.
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