COVID-19-linked news hampers CSE trading

By Hiran H.Senewiratne 

Regular trading at the CSE was temporarily halted twice yesterday. Initially, it was for  30 minutes from 11.07 am to 11.37 am  as the S&P SL20 index dropped by 5 percent  during the trading session; caused by current COVID-19- linked negative news.

S&P SL20 index fell 125.53 points or 5.11 percent  to 2,328.90 and the All Share Price Index also fell 4.26 percent or 257.54 points in early trade to 5,792.63.

However, when regular trading at the CSE recommenced at 11.37 am, the All Share Price Index was down by 496.5 points to 5,553.67 while S&P SL20 index indicated a fall of 178.24 points to 2,276.19.

This is a decline of 5.88 percent  and 6.48 percent , respectively, in comparison to the last trading day. The two circuit breakers were triggered by negative news on COVID 19 in some open clusters in the country, stock market analysts said.

When the second halt occurred, the S&P SL 20 Index of liquid stocks plunged over 7.5percent, triggering the second circuit breaker threshold, around mid-day. The trading halt was lifted at 12.13pm.

The All Share Price Index witnessed its highest ever intra-day drop due to heavy selling pressure, analysts said.

Turnover stood at Rs. 3.82 billion with a single crossing/arranged transaction.. The crossing was reported from JKH, which crossed 1.36 million shares to the tune of Rs. 177.9 million; its shares traded at Rs. 131.

In the retail market, top five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were;  Expolanka Rs. 651.7 million (53.3 million shares traded), JKH Rs. 224.6 million (1.7 million shares traded), Tokyo Cement (Non Voting) Rs. 218.4 million (5.2 million shares traded), Tokyo Cement (Voting) Rs. 216.6 million (4.2 million shares traded) and Hayleys Fabrics Rs. 167.9 million (7.1 million shares traded). During the day, 268.8 million share volumes changed hands in 36909 transactions.