Colombo bourse salutes new President
The Colombo share market was upbeat on Friday soaring to some Rs. 3.2 billion in turnover just as common opposition candidate, Maithripala Sirisena secured a close win at the Presidential poll.
Analysts said that ‘victory value’ will continue in the bourse for a few days, where traders will be buoyant. “This rally will continue for some days, but then there’re elections again in April, which will swing the bourse into an ebb and flow situation,” Murtaza Jafferjee, CE O JB Stockbrokers told the Business Times. He added that the share market is overacting now as is to be expected, but it will settle to a good rhythm by this week. The Colombo bourse closed higher on election-day on Thursday recording the sixth consecutive winning session of gains.
An analyst said that both indices will gain in the next few days, adding that some firms will be losers. “Companies which benefited from the last regime will see their share prices crashing.” He said that the issue of ‘continuity’ which was feared would be lost if a regime change happened, is likely to be a thing of the past in the next few days.
Mr. Jafferjee added that change in ‘policy’ and ‘relationships’ will see share prices of certain companies going down.
Both indices gained in the morning maintaining momentum since the beginning of the week, with the ASPI moving 1.16 per cent up to record 7,585.59 at 11.30 am while the S&P SL20 index gained 2.47 per cent to post 4,289.49 at close.