Some across-the-board sales at CSE following dampening of investor sentiment

By Hiram. H Senewiratne

President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s recent comments in parliament on the CSE and debt restructuring have dampened investor sentiment to a degree, market analysts said.

Consequently, some investors were prompted to sell off their shares across-the-board, which brought both CSE indices down.As a result the stock market did not show any steadiness yesterday, resulting in low turnover and decreased investor participation, market sources said.

The All- Share Price Index went down by 79 points and S and P SL 20 declined by 21.5 points.

Turnover stood at Rs 928 million without any crossings. In the retail market, top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; Aitken Spence Rs 132 million (982,000 shares traded), HNB Rs 120 million (one million shares traded), Expolanka Holdings Rs 60.3 million (382,000t shares traded), Lanka IOC Rs 47.7 million (287,000 shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 43 million (7.5 million shares traded), Dialog Axiata Rs 30.7 million (2.8 million shares traded) and Aitken Spence Hotels Rs 29.7 million (500,000 shares traded). During the day 35.8 million shares volumes changed hands in 13000 transactions.

Yesterday, the Central Bank’s US dollar buying rate was Rs 313.83 and selling rate Rs 328.77.