Someone pressed the panic button and there was haemorrhage for three days at the Colombo bourse this week causing devastation to the entire industry. Some relief was seen on Thursday with a reversal of the negative trend followed by a similar sentiment the next day (Friday), when there was a substantial turnover recording close to Rs.2 billion, brought about by dealings in Lanka Walltiles and JK Holdings, and to a certain extent by Softlogic Holdings, Textured Jersey and Expolanka.
Expolanka and Textured Jersey gained moderately from the week low prices of Rs.8.80 and Rs.9.90, respectively. The other interesting prices were that of Alliance Finance which had a tremendous upside to close at Rs.823 while Industrial Asphalts moved up to Rs. 525, DIMO was at Rs1265 but Colombo Pharmacy declined to Rs.1200. Colonial Motors which reported strong growth fluctuated during the week and closed at Rs.401.90.
Earlier in the week over five million shares in Asiri Surgical were transacted while Panasian Power, HVA Foods and Piramal Glass were in the basket of heavily traded shares.
How the market progresses in the weeks ahead depends on many ingredients like restoring confidence to the investors, but some believe that a major factor for the heavy depression appears to be the retail segment. An experienced investment advisor stated this week that many in this segment who were victims of the forced-selling episode due to lopsided rules, were spreading scare stories, and he thinks that if some form of compensation is considered covering their losses, it will be some appeasement. If they could be coaxed back into the market it would be beneficial to the industry.
The market conditions is mirrored by the response of the Unit Trusts to the recent People’s Leasing IPO, and many are anxiously awaiting the initial trading of this stock. Meanwhile a few IPOs are lined up of which scheduled for 30th November are Kalpitiya Beach Resorts Ltd offered 16.2 million shares on the Diri Savi board while Waskaduwa Beach Resorts are also being offered on the Diri Savi Board (5.6 million shares at Rs.12.50).
Lankem Developments changed its name to Consolidated Tea Plantations PLC.
Price bands were removed from SEMB Warrants W 0016 on 17th November. Changes in directorships: Singalanka Standard Chemicals -
Dr (Mrs) Wafa Abdulla Mohammad Darwish resigned as a director on November 4 while Ahmed Al Neama and Sarhank Kader were appointed directors on the same day;
Finlays Colombo - Ms Miriam Coralie Pietersz was appointed Executive Director on November 15. Turnover was Rs.4.5 billion as against Rs.2.7 billion last week. Both indices were down in comparison to the previous week with the All Share Price Index losing 191.95 points or 0.3% to end at 6140.52 while the Milanka was 0.5% or 302.33 points lower, ending for the week at 5349.54. |
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