ASPI ends higher amid healthy turnover levels

Lanka Milk Foods, Kandy Hotels Company and Expo Lanka lead market activity

By Hiran H.Senewiratne 

Stock trading activities at the CSE yesterday progressed on a positive note from the start of the day through mid-day but declined towards the latter part of the day, however, in the last trading hour the market rebounded due to a news report which indicated that the country would be fully open by September as the government’s aggressive vaccination drive is moving ahead, stock market analysts said.

Domestic coronavirus cases continued to rise, with total confirmed infections in the country increasing to 276,106, while the death toll was at 3,533 as of Tuesday, according to health ministry data. The island nation has fully vaccinated about 7 percent  of its population so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins.

With the relaxing of inter provincial mobility the stock market gained more confidence among investors. Therefore both indices moved upwards. All Share Price Index up by 32.52 points and S and P SL20 up by 16.04 points. 

Meanwhile, according to JKSB, ASPI ended higher amid healthy turnover levels with advances exceeding declines by more than 2 to 1. Lanka Milk Foods, Kandy Hotels Company and Expo Lanka led market activity including crossings with trading in Lanka Milk Foods amounting to 17% of total turnover.

Turnover stood at Rs 2.05 billion with two crossings. Those crossings reported in Lanka Milk Foods, which crossed two million shares to the tune of Rs 340 million and its share price traded at Rs 170 and Kandy Hotels 36.58 million shares crossed for Rs 215.8 million and its share price traded at Rs 5.90.

In the retail market top five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were Expolanka Hotels Rs 185.8 million (3.58 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 184.6 million (29.4 million shares traded), LOLC Holdings Rs 184.4 million (442,000 shares traded), Dipped Products Rs 98.5 million (1.8 million shares traded) and L.B Finance Rs 63.9 million (847,000 shares traded). During the day 126.6 million share volume changed hands in 18,581 transactions.