Colombo shares maintain New Year cheer on both indices

The Colombo stock market on Tuesday kept up the momentum from last Friday, being the second trading day since the dawn of the New Year when both indices posted near 1 per cent gains.

At the close of the market, turnover improved to Rs. 2 billion after over a month-long period of dismal numbers.

Analysts attributed this to better investor sentiment at the start of the year. The core All Share Index rose 0.98 per cent to touch 7420.14 while the S&P SL 20 index gained 0.97 per cent to close at 4150.24.

Monday was a statutory holiday for the bourse on account of Sunday being a Poya day and also Prophet Mohammed's birthday.

Analysts said foreign investors were holding on to their investments as the economic policies of both political sides who are facing the Presidential elections on Thursday have now broadly spelled out their economic policies (low interest rate, lower public spending, FDI driven, etc).

They added that with less than 48 hours for the election many traders will be awaiting the exciting political developments in the country tomorrow and also post elections, towards the latter part of the week. “There may be some profit gains by Wednesday,” an analyst said.