Colombo Port City Bill hopes buoy bourse

By Hiran H.Senewiratne 

CSE activities were positive yesterday because investors were expecting parliament to announce the Supreme Court decision on the Colombo Port City Bill today, stock market analysts said. 

It is said that the bourse had ended in red on previous days as the investor mood continued to be relatively pessimistic towards the pandemic. But yesterday market activities were positive, analysts said.

Sri Lanka stocks gained 2.45 per cent yesterday, pushed up by LOLC Holdings, Expolanka Holdings and Browns Investments, ending the continuous plunge seen in the past few days amid a fresh surge in COVID-19 infections in the country, brokers said.

Both indices moved upwards yesterday after three consecutive downfalls. All Share Price Index was up by 173.24 points and S and P SL20 up by 78.74 points. The turnover stood at Rs 2.17 billion with two crossings. Those crossings were reported in TJ Lanka, which crossed 700,000 shares to the tune of Rs 27.3 million, its shares traded at Rs. 39 and Windforce 1.2 million shares crossed for Rs 21.5 million; its shares trading at Rs 17.90.

In the retail market, top five companies that contributed to the turnover were, Royal Ceramic Rs 329.3 million (9.8 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 197.7 million (31.5 million shares traded), Dipped Products Rs 170.1 million (3.1 million shares traded), Expolanka Rs 145.8 million (3.1 million shares traded) and LOLC Rs 139.6 million ( 437,000 shares traded). During the day 171.3 million share volumes changed hands in 21482 transactions.  The Capital Goods Industry, which was the most active, gained 3.9 per cent.