Although, both CSE indices showed negative or downward trends yesterday, SLT’s 0.7 percent or 13.2 million shares which were held with NSB
had been transferred to the government Treasury by way of a crossing.
With that transfer of shares, the government Treasury share component in SLT will go up to 50.2 percent from 49.5 percent.
The total value of the transaction was Rs 1.26 billion, which was 53 percent of the total turnover.
The purpose of this transfer was the government’ strategy to divest state owned enterprises to improve their efficiency, market analysts said.
Amid those developments both indices showed a downward trend. The All- Share Price Index went down by 42.85 points, while the S and P SL20 declined by 13.49 points.
Turnover stood at Rs 2.39 billion with two crossings.
The crossings were reported in SLT, which crossed 13.2 million shares to the tune of Rs 1.26 billion; its shares traded at Rs 96 and JKH 210,000 shares crossed for Rs 41.4 million; its shares traded at Rs 197.
In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; JKH Rs 393 million (2 million shares traded), Expolanka Holdings Rs 174 million (1.34 million shares traded), Commercial Bank Rs 61.4 million (709,000 shares traded), HNB Rs 46 million (271,000 shares traded), Access Engineering Rs 29 million (1.7 million shares traded), SLT Rs 27.9 million (281,000 shares traded) and Sampath Bank Rs 27.5 million (399,000 shares traded). During the day 36.7 million share volumes changed hands in 6922 transactions.
Meanwhile, market participants said there were some profit- takings yesterday after moving up during the previous sessions.
A CSE corporate disclosure by Singer Industries announced that Regnis (Lanka) and Singer (Sri Lanka) would be amalgamated, subject to CSE requirements.
Yesterday, the US dollar buying rate was Rs 323.15 and selling rate Rs 333.63.
(island.lk)
