Upcoming budget, pending reforms preventing stocks from going up

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

The stock market commenced its trading activities yesterday on a positive note during the early session, but that momentum was short-lived as investors were skeptical about the forthcoming budget which they thought would entail new taxes as well as far-reaching reforms in many sectors, market analysts said.

Amid those developments both indices moved downwards. All Share Price Index down by 125.25 points and S and P SL20 down by 37 points. Turnover stood at Rs 1.3 billion with four crossings. Those crossings were reported in Sampath Bank, which crossed 7.5 million shares to the tune of Rs 492 million and its share price traded at Rs 65, People’s Leasing and Finance 8.6 million shares crossed to the tune of Rs 88.6 million and its share price traded at Rs 10.20, Hayleys 330,000 shares crossed to the tune of Rs 27.54 million and its share price traded at Rs 83 and JKH 105,000 shares crossed to the tune of Rs 20 million and its share price traded at Rs 191.

In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were JKH Rs 178 million (927,000 shares traded), First Capital Hotels Rs 77.7 million (1.6 million shares traded), SLT Rs 68.6 million (566,000 shares traded), Sampath Bank Rs 37.5 million (575,000 shares traded), First Capital Treasuries Rs 33.8 million (1.2 million shares traded), Ceylinco Insurance Rs 26.8 million (320,000 shares traded) and Lanka Hospitals Rs 24 million (191,000 shares traded). During the day 37.6 million share volumes changed hands in 10,000 transactions.

Yesterday the Central Bank announced the US dollar rate; the buying rate at Rs 320.32 and selling rate at Rs 331.39