Capital Alliance Group’s Rs. 1.3 billion internal fund transfer energizes bourse

By Hiran H. Senewiratne

The stock market recovered yesterday after having experienced some down trends over the past few consecutive days mainly due to an internal fund transfer of Rs 1.3 billion within the Capital Alliance Group, market analysts said.

This was mainly made up of one major transaction; a crossing of 21.7 million shares and Capital Alliance shares amounted to Rs 1.3 billion. Amid those developments both indices moved downwards. All Share Price Index went down by 39.9 points and S and P SL20 declined by 7.27 points. Turnover stood Rs 2.1 billion with two crossings.

Those crossings were reported in Capital Alliance, where 21.7 million shares crossed to the tune of Rs 1.3 billion; its shares traded at Rs 6.10 and Pan Asia Bank’s 8.8 million shares crossed for Rs 143 million; its shares traded at Rs 17.

In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; JKH Rs 93.7 million (498,000 shares traded), Ceylinco Insurance Rs 79.4 million (32300 shares traded), Commercial Bank Rs 35 million (416,000 shares traded), Melstacorp Rs 25.8 million (34,000 shares traded) Sampath Bank Rs 25.2 million (377,000 shares traded), Capital Alliance Rs 23.5 million (389,000 shares traded) and Bukit Darah Rs 20.8 million (50.8 shares traded). During the day 46.5 million share volumes changed hands in 6808 transactions.

It is said high net worth and institutional investor participation was noted in The Colombo Fort Land & Building, Lanka IOC and Teejay Lanka. Mixed interest was observed in Sampath Bank, Hayleys and JKH, while retail interest was noted in Capital Alliance, Browns Investments and Lanka Milk Foods.

The Capital Goods sector was the top contributor to the market turnover (due to The Colombo Fort Land & Building), while the sector index edged down by 0.02 percent. The share price of The Colombo Fort Land & Building lost 90 cents to settle at Rs. 27.10.

The Banking sector was the second highest contributor to the market turnover (due to Sampath Bank) while the sector index decreased by 0.34 percent. The share price of Sampath Bank recorded a loss of 20 cents to settle at Rs. 66.40.

Yesterday the rupee opened at Rs 328.40/50 to the US dollar from Rs 328.60/75 the day before, dealers said.