Memorable stockmarket in January

January was a memorable month for the Colombo Bourse with the Milanka Price Index (MPI) surpassing the 4,000 mark while market capitalisation topped Rs.900 billion during the month creating history and making a strong come back after a depressing December.

Bartleet Mallory Stockbrokers in a report said that the first trading day for the year started off buoyantly with both indices moving considerably, although the rest of the week failed to keep up the momentum with the week being limited to only three trading days. "However, both indices moved up a marginal 17.20 points to close at 2739.56 while the MPI notched up 31.27 points to end at 3743.07," the report said, adding that the interest was mainly on fundamentally sound stocks such as John Keells Holdings (JKH ), Dialog and Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT).

"The All Share Price Index jumped 70.81 points or 2.58 percent and the MPI moved 135 points or 3.60 percent for the week where turnover was a massive Rs.3.05 billion while daily turnover averaged Rs.610 million," it added.

The report further said that the telecommunication sector dominated market activity during the second week of January, resulting in more active participation by investors and that SLT was the most sought after with the stock being the highest traded for the week at 4.92 million shares changing hands.

It added that the JKH which has been gaining investor interest for the last couple of months slumped Rs.8 initially on the announcement of rights and bonus issue by the company but was quick to recover backed by strong investor confidence which resulted in the stock closing at Rs.195.75 for the week.

The report said that the ASPI moved a staggering 201.89 points or 7.42 percent in January to close at 2924.25 while the highly liquid MPI jumped a massive 328.55 points or 8.85 percent to close at 4040.35.