Mood of apprehension grips bourse; panic-selling to the fore

By Hiram H. Senewiratne

Weak investor interest in the CSE persisted yesterday with investors waiting apprehensively for the upcoming budget and developments in the debt restructuring exercise.

Over the last few days there was panic selling of stocks due to internal and external uncertainties, market analysts said.

This situation will benefit bargain hunters when stock prices go down, observers added. The All-Share Price Index went down by 68.2 points and S and P SL20 declined by 24.7 points.

Turnover stood at Rs 994 million with two crossings. Those crossings were reported in JKH, which crossed 1 million shares to the tune of Rs 193 million; its shares traded at Rs 193 and Cargills 75000 shares crossed for Rs Rs 28.1 million; its shares traded at Rs 375.

In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; JKH Rs 112 million (586,000 shares traded), Lanka IOC Rs 91.2 million (902,000 shares traded), First Çapital Treasuries Rs 58.9 million (1.4 million shares traded), Expolanka Holdings Rs 48 million (370,000 shares traded), Chevron Lubricants Rs 29.1 million (327,000), Hayley’s Fabrics Rs 29 million (635,000 shares traded) and First Çapital Holdings (499,000 shares traded). During the day 31.5 million shares volumes changed hands in 9800 transactions.

Yesterday, the US dollar buying rate was Rs 318.27 and selling rate Rs 329.41.