CSE’s main indices rise despite slowing momentum during last hour of trading

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

CSE activities were positive most of yesterday but during the last hour this positive momentum slackened because stock market investors did not turn bullish due to some uncertain economic conditions, stock market analyst said.

With the swearing in of Basil Rajapaksa as the new Finance Minister, stock market investors adopted a somewhat cautious stance. Besides, the decline in foreign reserves in the country caused some concern. However, the last one hour’s lacklustre performance of the market did not heavily impact both indices, analyst said. All Share Price Index up went up by 4.79 points and S and P SL20 rose by 23.32 points.

Turnover stood at Rs. 1.24 billion with a single crossing. The crossing was reported in HNB, which crossed 400,000 shares to the tune of Rs. 52.4 million and its shares traded at Rs. 131. In the retail market, top five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were, HNB Rs. 350 million (2.67 million shares traded), LOLC Rs. 80.8 million (199,000 shares traded), Hayleys Fabrics Rs. 52.6 million (2.7 million shares traded), Pan Asia Power Rs. 46 million (11 million shares traded) and TJLanka Rs. 45 million (1.17 million shares traded). During the day 48.7 million share volumes changed hands in 13175 transactions.

The banking sector did not witness a major price appreciation in the stock market with the Central Bank Monetary Board decision continue the current monetary policy stance.