Trading in Expolanka amounts to 25% of total turnover at CSE

By Hiran H. Senewiratne

Trading activities at the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) were negative yesterday and the market did not pick up even with the announcement of India’s largest IT company HCL Technologies, to take up 80 percent of the office space of Cinnamon Life, an office tower and mixed-use property project by JKH, stock market analysts said.

A major reason for the market to perform negatively was that Expolanka, one of the top listed  companies in the market recorded acute price depreciation. Meanwhile, Alumex PLC not recording its quarterly profit also had a  ripple effect on other companies causing slight price depreciation. In addition to that the escalation of Covid 19 positive patients and overwhelmed state hospitals added insult to the injury, stock market analysts said

HCL’s commitment as the anchor office tenant at Cinnamon Life adds immense value to the integrated mixed development project as a whole as the office spaces are poised to attract a dynamic local and expatriate workforce,” JKH said in a statement.

Therefore, JKH share price was appreciated by Rs 1.50 or one percent. Its share price appreciated from Rs 138 to Rs 139.50.

Expolanka which reported extraordinary profits in the recent past, witnessed some price depreciation of its shares by Rs 2 or 2.5 percent. Its share price started trading at Rs 79.60 and at the end of the day its share price declined to Rs 77.60. Meanwhile, according to JKSB, trading in Expolanka amounted to 25% of total turnover.

With these developments both indices moved downwards. All Share Price Index down by 12.24 points and S and P SL20 down by 1.18 points.Turnover stood at Rs 5.68 billion with two crossings. Those crossings were reported in JKH, which crossed 1.2 million shares to the tune of Rs 168 million and its share price traded at Rs 140 and Commercial Bank 375,000 shares crossed for Rs 27.5 million and its share price traded at Rs 84.50.

In the retail market top five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover Expolanka Rs 1.26 billion (15.9 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs 839 million (121 million shares traded), JKH Rs 415.3 million (2.97 million shares traded), Royal Ceramic Rs 308 million (7.3 million shares traded) and Vallibe One Rs 209 million (3.3 million shares traded). During the day 245 million share volume changed hands in 33863 transactions.