By Hiran H.Senewiratne
CSE trading activities started on a positive note yesterday but later there was selling pressure and lower buying interest after the Chinese embassy in Colombo released a twitter message against the US ambassador’s statement that had implied that the Chinese government is not supportive of Sri Lanka obtaining IMF assistance to restructure its debt to China.
“Basically the whole month we saw a bit of a volatile struggle in the market as investors look for direction; this has been the case after the delay in the IMF bailout, a market analyst said.
Sri Lanka’s shares fell in mid- day trade reverting from the previous day’s gains on overall weak economic sentiments. Both indices showed a downward trend. The All- Share Price Index went down by 9.97 points and S and P SL20 went down by 6.1 points. Turnover stood at Rs 1.4 billion minus any crossings.
In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were, Softlogic Capital Rs 271 million (18.5 million shares traded) Capital Alliance Rs 147 million (4.7 million shares traded), Softlogic Life Rs 140 million (1.4 million shares traded), Expolanka Holdings Rs 86.5 million (457,000 shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 66.8 million (ten million shares traded), Lanka IOC Rs 63 million (328,000 shares traded) and LOLC Finance Rs 62 million (8.6 million shares traded). During the day 81.9 million share volumes changed hands in 16400 transactions.
However, yesterday, Softlogic Capital and Softlogic Life regained momentum.
Yesterday, the Central Bank- announced US dollar buying rate was Rs 366.41 and the selling rate Rs 371.47.
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