In anticipation of a favourable response to the appeal made by the stockbrokers on behalf of the retail players,the market staged a remarkable recovery from Tuesday onwards. Friday was the best day for some time;the ASI gaining almost 200 points with an imposing turnover.
An important contribution to this market upheaval was also the highly profitable quarterly reports released this week. John Keells Holdings, a one time foreigner’s favourite, Sampath Bank and Pan Asia Bank released excellent results.
An upside was effected in Lankem Development which stated that it purchased a 61.88% stake in Agrapatana Plantations. The poultry sector which had been riding a popularity wave some months back came back into the reckoning with substantial market gains.Alliance Finance which came out with a subdivision was on the upside but tapered down but Ceylon Tobacco which announced its second interim dividend moved substantially.
Excitement to the market was also provided by the illiquid set of stocks like J.L. Morisons Sons & Jones which closed for the month at Rs 3800, E.B. Creasy at Rs 1800, Kalamazoo Systems at Rs 3100 and Colombo Pharmacy at Rs 1805.
Many emphasised that the retail segment is an important component in the share market and losing them is a very dangerous factor. Alarm bells rang when the All Share Index sunk towards the 6400 mark and this pushed brokers into action. The response appears to have been factored in, according to analysts.
Browns Investments joined the parade of IPO failures - Expolanka, Free Lanka Capital Holdings and more recently Softlogic Holdings. On its debut, Browns Investments experienced heavy dealings of over 74 million shares. It hovered around the Rs 5 mark mostly with a sporadic jump of a few cents above Rs 5 on one or two days. Activity in this quadruple is fairly widespread. Following the upward trend in the market these stocks made minor headway except for Softlogic.
Central Investments & Finance Ltd was fully subscribed during the week and there should be a lull in the IPO.s for the present.
Directors: SMB LEASING – T. Someswaran was appointed Chairman effective 27th July and P.V. Ranasinghe as acting Chief Executive Officer.
Both indices made substantial gains. The All share Price Index gained 308.13 points or 0.4% to close at 6845.38 while the Millanka Price Index was 180.32 points or 0.2% better at 6210.07. The turnover for the week was also better at Rs 9.7 billion against Rs 6.7 billion last week.
|
E-mail
