CSE continues in negative mode; indices down

By Hiran H.Senewiratne 

CSE activities were negative from last morning onwards  but they did not recover even during  the latter part of the day. However, Sri Lanka’s  2020 GDP growth was a little better than expected. This had a slightly positive effect on stocks, market analysts said. 

Amid those developments, both indices moved downwards. All Share Price Index went down by 75.14 points and S and P SL20 declined by 30.64 points. The turnover stood at Rs. 853 million with a single crossing. The crossing was reported in JKH, which crossed 136,000 shares to the tune of Rs. 20.4 million.

In the retail market, five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were;  Expolanka Rs. 152.6 million (3.4 million shares  traded), Sampath Bank Rs. 91 million (590,000 shares were traded), JKH Rs. 76.3 million (510,000 shares  traded), Hayleys Rs. 61.6 million (1.1 million shares traded) and Browns Investments Rs. 48.3 million (9.5 million shares traded). During the day 28.9 million share volumes changed hands in 10198 transactions.    

 RIL Property Plc’s fully owned subsidiary Food Buzz Ltd.,  which runs Singapore based franchise entity  “Bread Talk”  outlets, closed down the latter from March 20  due to adverse market conditions resulting from the Easter Sunday attacks as well as the ongoing pandemic. Thus, Food Buzz Board of Directors had decided to temporarily suspend their business operations until a decision is taken going forward.  At present there are 10 Bread Talk outlets in the country.

Last year, Food Buzz reported a loss of Rs. 59 million with a revenue of Rs. 413 million.  

Sri Lanka’s rupee quoted at 199.50/201.50 levels to the US dollar in the one week forwards market while the bond yields remained unchanged, dealers said.

The rupee last closed in the one- week forward market at 199/201 to the US dollar on Tuesday and the spot was quoted at 200.75 levels. Rupee last hit close to 200 to the dollar in March 2020.