A battered and bruised bourse is desperately waiting for some inspirational effort to change the prevailing dull sentiment. Many connected to the industry are deeply concerned at the current state of the market. Some put it down to the global situation and the related decline in tea and rubber prices while a few analysts believe it is due to the retail segment who suffered big losses due the forced selling drama. One broker regretted selling his client’s stock despite his pleading for a few days grace. He says he has lost so many good clients because of the forced selling rule, and now he has a problem, in that there are no new clients as was expected.
Reverting to the activity during the week, one time foreign favourite JKH was again on their radar screen as evidenced by the daily transactions. Over 2 million shares were traded on Wednesday and it has been oscillating around the Rs 200 mark for sometime.
Noticeable trades were effected in Laugfs Voting shares on Monday when 33 million shares at Rs 48 were purchased by the EPF. There was also a near 16-million transaction in Softlogic Holdings at Rs 20 where the seller is believed to be a director, who would have participated in its private placement, thus bringing in a tidy profit. The company offered 139 million shares through an IPO at Rs 29 in June 2011. New rules covering private placement and IPOs are to be enacted which will prevent a similiar swindle which took place recently.
Serendib Hotels has had a fair demand of late while other stocks in this sector were easy in the market. Among the stocks in the heavily traded basket, Panasian Power, e-chanelling and Blue Diamonds continued to be active but Reunka Agri Foods was most noticeable.
Union Chemicals had a major escalation on Friday when it rose to Rs 849.90 while Colombo Pharmacy ended at Rs 1525 and E.B.Creasy at Rs.2200.
Despite the gloomy sentiment, People Leasing Co. PLC is projecting to raise Rs 7 billion through its 390 million share issue which opens on November 3. Since this share is priced at Rs 18 they are expecting an overwhelming response to this mega IPO and is hoping for the type of investors who will hold onto their shares for a while and not sell at the commencement of trading. But here, there need not be this fear because there was no private placement and if as they expect, there is a fair return to investors erasing out the unsavoury sequence of the recent IPO like Free Lanka Capital, Expolanka and the most disappointing of all Softlogic Holdings, there may be fresh hope for the market. Softlogic ended the week at Rs 19.90 while Expolanka which has made recent investments in Pakistan and Vietnam was at Rs.10.90.
PRICE BANDS – were removed from Ceylon & Foreign Trades on October 13.
DIRECTORS
- Kelani Valley Plasntations PLC: Dr.K I Mahesha Ranasoma was appointed Non Executive Director on October 10 while Yohan Fernando resigned from the board on the same day; Talawakelle Tea Estates PLC - Dr. K I Mahesha Ranasoma was appointed Non Executive Director; Lanka Ventures PLC - Ray Abeywardena appointed to the Board on October 12.
The turnover for the week was Rs. 6.8 million against Rs. 8.9 million the previous week. Both indices were depressed with the All Share Price Index losing 148.92 points or 0.2% to end at 6549.91 while the Milanka lost 99.81 points or 0.1% to close at 5878.33 |
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