By Hiran H.Senewiratne
Sri Lanka’s shares moved up within the first hour of trading yesterday though the market proved to be highly volatile. However, it later showed some marginal recovery following Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe’s positive comments on the local economy. He hinted that the economy would become stable and register steady growth by next year.
Weerasinghe said inflation will reach a maximum level of 65 per cent by September and will likely indicate a downward trend afterwards. “The reason being that the Central Bank managed the sagging economy quite well and now we could provide the basic needs of the people with our current export revenue and inward remittances, he said at the CBSL’s monthly policy review meeting yesterday.
Amid these developments both indices moved upwards. The All- Share Price Index rose by 3.22 points (0.04 per cent) to end at 8910.57 and S and P SL20 gained 22.36 points (0.76 per cent) to end the day at 2969.36. Turnover stood at Rs 2.7 billion with a single crossing. The crossing was reported in JKH, which crossed 500,000 shares to the tune of Rs 63.75 million; its shares traded at Rs 120.50.
In the retail market, seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were, Lanka IOC Rs 578 million (three million shares traded), Expolanka Holdings Rs 313 million (1.5 million shares traded), Lankem Development Rs 208 million (ten million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 84.6 million (ten million shares traded), LOLC Finance Rs 83 million (114,000 shares traded), Agstar Rs 82.7 million (6.8 million shares traded) and Renuka Agri Foods Rs 72.6 million (9.8 million shares traded). During the day 115 million share volumes changed hands in 29000 transactions. Yesterday the Central Bank announced the US dollar buying rate as Rs 357.33 and the selling rate as Rs 368.70.
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