Banks come to the fore as best performing sector at CSE

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

The trading activities at the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) started in a lackluster manner yesterday, but gained momentum by mid-day with both indices turning out to be positive towards the end of the session.

The reason for the market to pick up fast was because it was driven by the banking sector counters, stock market analysts said.

“The stock market witnessed a significant rally in the banking sector counters and in that backdrop, share prices at the banking sector counters appreciated significantly, they said.

Among listed banking sector counters Amana share price appreciated by 25 percent or 80 cents. Its share price started trading at Rs 3.20 and at the end of the day it moved up to Rs 4. Other major banks such as Commercial Bank, Sampath Bank and HNB share prices also appreciated.

Commercial Bank share price appreciated by three percent or Rs 2.80. Its share price traded at Rs 87 and at the end of the day it moved up to Rs 89.80, Sampath Bank share price appreciated by five percent or Rs 2.70. Its share price started trading at Rs 54.60 at the end of the day and moved up to Rs 57.30 and HNB share price appreciated by 4.6 percent or Rs 6.75. Its share price started trading at Rs 144 and at the end of the day it shot up to Rs 150.75.

Amid those developments both indices moved upwards. All Share Price Index up by 92.81 points and S and P SL20 up by 76.21 points. Turnover stood at Rs 4.1 billion with two crossings. Those crossings were reported in ACL Cables, which crossed one million shares to the tune of Rs 45 million and its share price traded at Rs 45 and Dialog 1.9 million shares crossed for Rs 20.5 million and its share price traded at Rs 10.80.

In the retail market top five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were Expolanka Holdings Rs 442 million (2.3 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 324 million (30.2 million shares traded), Sampath Bank Rs 249 million (4.4 million shares traded), Amana Bank Rs 165 million (42 million shares traded) and Commercial Bank Rs 142 million (1.6 million shares traded). During the day 296 million share volume changed hands in 40,000 transactions.

Yesterday, Sri Lanka rupee quoted against the US dollar was Rs 200.088. It is said that the Central Bank’s intervention and imposed a maximum rate of Rs 203 for a US dollar.