By Hiran H.Senewiratne
The CSE gained yesterday after slipping for six sessions as investors bought beaten-down shares. However, this happened on thin volumes. The business sentiment had apparently improved due to low share prices caused by high activity levels by bargain-hunters, stock market analysts said.
“We may see the market move to green because the index fell continuously for close to a week. However, this is not an indication of a recovery as there’s a lot of selling pressure, an analyst said. But strong buying interest was noted in blue chip companies, including Lanka IOC, Expolanka Holdings, SLT and many more. SLT share prices recorded a two- week high due to discussions on restructuring state- owned enterprises, stock market analysts said.
Amid those developments both indices moved upwards. The All- Share Price Index went up by 223 points and S and P SL20 rose by 98.3 points. Turnover stood at Rs 1.5 billion with three crossings. The crossings were reported in Sunshine Holdings, which crossed 3.4 million shares to the tune of Rs 109.9 million, its shares traded at Rs 32, JKH 250,000 shares crossed to the tune of Rs 34.7 million, its shares traded at Rs 139 and Commercial Bank 652,000 shares crossed to the tune of Rs 32.6 million, its shares were priced at Rs 50.
In retail market trading, seven companies mainly contributed to the turnover. They were, Lanka IOC Rs 357 million (2.1 million shares traded), Expolanka Holdings Rs 157 million (1.2 million shares traded), Lankem Development Rs 112 million (3.9 million shares traded), Sunshine Holdings Rs 102.5 million (3.2 million shares traded), Ceylinco Holdings Rs 69.7 million (33000 shares traded), Dialog Rs 36.8 million (4.3 million shares traded) and SLT Rs 34.6 million (466,000 shares traded). During the day, 44.9 million share volumes changed hands in 16000 share transactions.
The Commercial Bank of Ceylon’s Rs. 5 billion debenture issue will open on December 1, 2022, offering investors an opportunity to profit from the growth of the Bank.
The Bank has announced plans to raise Rs. 5 billion via 50 million Basel III-compliant debentures with an option to increase it by another Rs. 5 billion in the event of an oversubscription, to further strengthen its Tier II capital base and raise funds for the expansion of its lending portfolio and to bridge maturity mismatches in the assets and liabilities portfolio of the Bank.
Yesterday, the Central Bank- announced US dollar buying rate was Rs 360.99 and the selling rate Rs 371.83. However, the inflation level is at a high rate of around 70 per cent.
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