Covid deaths rattle stock market

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

CSE trading activities were negative and the market reflected some panic yesterday with the reporting of the highest number of Covid- 19 deaths in the country. Two state hospitals, namely, Karapitiya Teaching Hospital and Ratnapura Teaching Hospital, reportedly declared a ‘state of emergency ‘within their premises as the COVID-19 outbreak continues to exhaust the healthcare system.

Ratnapura Teaching Hospital said the decision was taken due to the pandemic situation prevailing in the country and several other state hospitals reportedly reached maximum bed capacity, market sources said. Consequently, throughout yesterday the market witnessed some panic, which dragged the market downwards, stock market analysts said.

Amid those developments both indices declined. The All Share Price index went down by 198.37 points and S and P SL-20 declined by 76.93 points. Turnover stood at Rs. 5 billion with two crossings. Those crossings were reported in Print Care PLC, which crossed 7.29 million shares to the tune of Rs. 240.5 million and its shares traded at Rs. 33, while Cargills Ceylon PLC crossed 93000 shares to the tune of Rs. 22.9 million, its shares trading at Rs. 245.

In the retail market five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; Expolanka Holdings Rs. 1.29 billion (17.3 million shares traded), LOLC Holdings Rs. 422 million (920,000 shares traded), Browns Investments Rs. 412 million (62.1 million shares traded), Royal Ceramic Rs.375 million (9.4 million shares traded) and Dipped Products Rs. 325 million (5.8 million shares traded).

It said high net worth and institutional investor participation was noted in JKH and Commercial Bank. Mixed interest was observed in Royal Ceramics, Dipped Products and Vallibel One, while retail interest was noted in Browns Investments, Expolanka Holdings and SMB Leasing non-voting. During the day 242.6 million share volumes changed hands in 37880 transactions.