CSE shows gains but fails to sustain momentum

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

The latest IMF report has revealed that global economic conditions are going to be gloomy and that the world economy will expand by 3.2 per cent towards the end of 2022 due to the global recession. Accordingly, most economies will likely go bankrupt and the Sri Lanka economy is the first to thus collapse, stock market analysts said.

Amid these developments yesterday, the CSE showed some gains at the beginning but could not sustain that momentum because the investors are expecting some relief from the budget that would likely be presented in parliament before the end of August, market analysts said.

Therefore, both indices showed mixed reactions. All Share Price Index went down by 3.5 per cent and S and P SL20 rose by 9.9 points. Turnover stood at Rs one billion with a single crossing. The crossing was reported in Windforce, which crossed 1.4 million shares to the tune of Rs 21 million; its shares traded at Rs 15.

In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; Sunshine Holdings Rs 421 million (11.1 million shares traded), Lanka IOC Rs 83 million ( one million shares traded), Expolanka Holdings Rs 72.6 million (430,000 shares traded), hZenid Business Solutions Rs 34.3 million (1.5 million shares traded), Balangoda Plantations Rs 24.6 million (537,000 shares traded), Browns Investment Rs 22.6 million (3.2 million shares traded) and Regiz Rs 21.7 million (419,000 shares traded).

During the day, 54.2 million share volumes changed hands in 13000 share transactions.Top gainers were, Malwatte Valley Plantations, Teejay Lanka and Sampath Bank. Further, market activities have improved and turnover levels surpassed Rs one billion. But the main sector that contributed was the manufacturing sector but logistics and transport sectors also performed well. Plantations sector and the IT sector also did well, stock market analysts said.Yesterday, the Central Bank announced US dollar buying rate was Rs 357.44 and the selling rate Rs 368.49.