Delays in approving second tranche of IMF loan seen as hampering CSE investments

By. Hiran . H Senewiratne

CSE activities were sluggish yesterday because market investors are worried over current delays in approving the second tranche of the IMF loan for the country, market analysts said.

Accordingly, low turnover levels were recorded at the CSE, possibly also because of the shorter week and a wait- and- see approach by investors, market analysts added.

Amid those developments both indices moved downwards. The All- Share Price Index went down by 48.49 points while S and P SL-20 declined by 13.27 points. Turnover stood at Rs 550 million with one crossing. The crossing was reported in JKH, which crossed 342,000 million shares to the tune of Rs 55 million and its shares traded at Rs 190.25.

In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to turnover were; JKH Rs 74.6 million (392,000 shares traded), NDB Rs 25.5 million (380,000 shares traded), Union Assurance Rs 23.1 million (585,000 shares traded), Softlogic Capital Rs 19.7 million (1.7 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 16.9 million (3 million shares traded), Lanka IOC Rs 16.7 million (145,000 shares traded) and Hayley’s Fabrics Rs 16.3 million (354,000 shares traded). During the day 22.7 million share volumes changed hands in 8000 transactions.

Yesterday the US dollar buying rate was Rs 318.73 and selling rate Rs 329.77.