Govt to list several state-run hotels on CSE

Stocks of poultry companies increase in price

By Hiran H.Senewiratne 

The government would roll out a plan to  list several state-run hotels on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE)  through Selendiva Leisure, a holding company controlled by the government in June this year, Treasury Secretary Sajith Attygalle said yesterday speaking at the opening day of the Invest Sri Lanka Forum held virtually.

“The company will take over underutilized, underperforming, such as prime real estate, restructure them and raise capital,” Attygalle told the investment forum organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, CSE and the Board of Investment. 

Sri Lanka created a fully state-run entity  called ” Selendiva” to take over various state assets and act as the ‘investment arm’ of the government, he said.

Grand Oriental Hotels is part of the Bank of Ceylon, which was expropriated shortly after independence in an early violation of property rights. Further, private investors are expected to be allowed to buy around 49 percent of Selendiva Leisure.

Amid those developments, trading activity at the CSE was positive and witnessed some buying interest for certain stocks during the day. Both induces moved upwards. All Share Price Index upn by 24.5 points and S and P SL20 up by 6.7 points. Turnover stood at Rs 2.1 billion with a single crossing. The crossing took place in Watawala Plantation, which crossed 500,000 shares to the tune of Rs 27.75 million and its share price traded at Rs 55.50.

In the retail market top five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were  LOLC Rs 189.9 milli0n (496,000 shares traded), Expolanka Rs 170.6 million (3.5 million shares traded), Central Finance Rs 120 million (1.2 million shares traded), Royal Ceramic Rs 96 million (2.5 million shares traded) and Lanka Wall Tiles Rs 82.3 million (1.2 million shares traded.   During the day 114.9 million share volumes changed hands in 25136 transactions. 

Notably, poultry companies showed significant price appreciation due to an anticipated fish shortage following the sinking or half submerge of  X Press Pearl  ship in Sri Lanka waters, stock market analysts said.