Business
Tokyo Cement and Laugfs Gas share prices shoot up
By Hiran H.Senewiratne
Several companies witnessed some share price appreciation on the CSE trading floor with the government taking off the maximum retail price (MRP) control on four essential items, i.e., milk powder, wheat flour, LP Gas and cement yesterday. This would pave the way for a price hike of essentials, stock market analysts said.
With this announcement, Tokyo Cement and Laugfs Gas share prices appreciated significantly yesterday. Tokyo Cement (Non- Voting) shares appreciated by 11 percent or Rs 5. Its shares started trading at Rs 43 and at the end of the day they shot up to Rs 48 and Tokyo Cement (Voting) shares appreciated by 9 per cent or Rs 4.50. Its shares traded at Rs. 52 and at the end of the day they moved to Rs 56.50.
Further, Laugfs Gas shares also appreciated yesterday. Laugfs (Voting) price appreciated by 14 percent or Rs 3.20. Its shares started trading at Rs 22.90 and at the end of the day they moved up to Rs 26.10 and Laugfs (Non- Voting) shares appreciated by 10 percent or Rs 1.50. Its shares started trading at Rs 15.30 and at the end of the day they moved to Rs 16.80.
Amid those developments both indices indicated mixed reactions: All Share Price was up by 7.89 points and S and P SL20 down by 8.55 points. Turnover stood at Rs 3 billion with two crossings. Those crossings were reported in Royal Ceramic, which crossed 4.7 million shares to the tune of Rs 223 million and its shares traded at Rs 47.50 and Hayleys 250,000 shares crossed for Rs 25.2 million, its shares traded at Rs. 101.
In the retail market, top companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; Browns Investments Rs 461 million (43 million shares traded), Tokyo Cement (Non- Voting) Rs 280 million (5.9 million shares traded), Tokyo Cement (Voting) Rs 187 million (3.3 million shares traded), Expolanka Holdings Rs 181 million (942,000 shares traded) and Royal Ceramic Rs 114 million (2.4 million shares traded). During the day 177 million share volumes changed hands in 28000 transactions.
Yesterday, the US dollar was quoted at Rs 200.082, which was a controlled price by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.