Bourse bullish at morn and bearish at noon

By  Hiran H. Senewiratne

CSE activities were positive last morning following the news that the  Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) had approved a US $ 180 million loan for Sri Lanka. This loan is   for the COVID-19 emergency and crisis response facility, to be disbursed at US $ 90 million each through the Bank of Ceylon and People’s Bank, stock market analysts said.

Further, State Minister of Money & Capital Market and State Enterprise Reforms Nivard Cabraal also announced a US$ 1.5 billion Chinese currency swap which gave an  impetus to the market, analysts said.  But in the latter part of the day the market declined.  The major reason for this was the index heavy CTC’s share price decline by 4.7 percent or Rs. 49.50, which contributed 21 negative points to the All Share Price Index. Its shares on the previous day were Rs. 1050 and at the end of the day they moved down to Rs. 1000.50.   

Both indices indicated mixed reactions. The All Share Price Index went down by 38.21 points and S and P SL20 declined by 1.59 points. Turnover stood at Rs.  1.59 billion without a scrossing.

In the retail market, top five contributors to the turnover were; JKH Rs. 653 million (4.3 million shares traded), Expolanka Rs. 321 million (6.7 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs. 136 million (23.3 million shares traded), Dipped Products Rs. 87.3 million (1.8 million shares traded) and NDB Rs. 57.5 million (701,000 shares traded). During the day 57.9 million share volumes changed hands in 14144 transactions.      

Sri Lanka’s rupee quoted steady at 194.50/196.00 levels to the US dollar in the spot market on Monday while bond yields edged up slightly, dealers said. The rupee last closed in the spot market at 194.50/195.50 to the dollar on Thursday. The rupee has fallen from 186.40 in December 2020 to 194.40 to the US dollar in January 2021.