Bourse characterized by volatility; indices dip

By Hiran H Senewiratne

CSE activities were highly volatile yesterday and couldn’t maintain the previous day’s sentiment due to negative speculation among investors on debt restructuring delays, market analysts said.

Amid those developments both indices showed a downward trend. The All- Share Price Index went down by 16.25 points and S and P SL 20 declined by 12.01 points. Turnover stood at Rs 482 million with no crossings.

In the retail market, top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were, JKH Rs 96.03 million (686,000 shares traded), Expolanka Holdings Rs 31.5 million (238,000 shares traded), Capital Alliance Rs 29.7 million (914,000 shares traded), Seylan Bank Rs 28 million (one million shares traded), Chevron Lubricants Rs 26.8 million (308,000 shares traded), Hela Apparel Rs 19.4 million (3.2 million shares traded) and Royal Ceramic Rs 18.4 million (708,000 shares traded). During the day 25.1 million share volumes changed hands in 7500 transactions.

It is said that high net worth and institutional investor participation was noted in certain entries, such as JKH. Mixed interest was noted in Lanka IOC, Capital Alliance and First Capital Holding, while retail investors were interested in Browns Investments, LOLC Finance and Access Engineering.

The capital goods sector was the top contributor for the turnover, which was JKH.

Yesterday the Central Bank’s US dollar buying rate was Rs 284.84 and the selling rate Rs 297.94.