By Hiran H.Senewiratne
The CSE started the day in an extremely negative manner but later witnessed some recovery but that was not strong enough to push both indices to green territory yesterday, market analysts said.Further, President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s speech on the previous day in Parliament detailed various efforts taken to address the unsustainable external debt issue as well as revive the economy but did not positively respond to the stock market, stock market analysts added.
Amid those developments both indices moved downwards. The All- Share Price Index went down by 132 points and S and P SL20 declined by 24.7 points. Turnover stood at Rs 2 billion without any crossings.
In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; Lanka IOC Rs 587 million (2.6 million shares traded), Expolanka Holdings Rs 274 million (1.7 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 102 million (16.2 million shares traded), ACL Cables Rs 94.8 million (975,000 shares traded), CIC (Non- Voting) Rs 82.2 million (1.2 million shares traded), CIC (Voting) Rs 79.5 million (871,000 shares traded) and JKH Rs 70.2 million (545,000 shares traded). During the day 69.7 million share volumes changed hands in 24000 share transactions.
It is said high net worth and institutional investor participation was noted in JKH, Expolanka Holdings and ACL Cables. Mixed interest was observed in Lanka IOC, Ambeon Capital and CIC Holdings, while retail interest was noted in Browns Investments, SMB Leasing and First Capital Holdings.
The Consumer Durables and Apparel sector was the top contributor to the market turnover (due to Ambeon Capital), while the sector index lost 3.07 per cent. The share price of Ambeon Capital lost Rs. 2.50 (16.89 per cent) to close at Rs. 12.30.
The Energy sector was the second highest contributor to market turnover (due to Lanka IOC), while the sector index decreased by 3.99 per cent. The share price of Lanka IOC decreased by Rs. 11 (4.57per cent), to close at Rs. 229.50.
Further, stock market investors are a bit worried that OPEC had taken a decision to cut down the global crude oil supply to keep their prices high. Apart from that, global recessionary worries prevailed, which would have slowed down the world economy to a greater extent, informed sources said.Yesterday the Central Bank- announced the daily US dollar selling rate as Rs 369.91 and buying rate as Rs 359.16. According to the Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weereasinghe the rupee will further stabilize in the future due to current prudent economic policies.
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