Browns Investments-linked consortium figures in coal supply negotiations

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

A business consortium setup by Browns Investments, a subsidiary of LOLC Group, together with China Machinery Engineering Corporation is expected to enter into negotiations with the Sri Lankan government to secure an unsolicited bid to supply coal to the Norochcholai power plant, stock market analysts said.Accordingly, the organizations submitted two proposals to the government; the first one on August 12 and the re -submission of the same proposal on September 8. The Norochcholai coal power plant shut down for some time and is due to resume operations now but another crisis would likely occur in the future, market analysts said. This created some significant buying interest for Browns Investments stocks during the last few weeks, stock market analysts said.

Yesterday, CSE gained over 1.5 per cent in mid-day trade pushed by index heavy shares, recovering the loss made in the previous session. Previous runners LOLC Finance and several other blue chip companies witnessed some profit- taking. But banking sector and hotel sector counters were active in the market, stock market analysts said.

Therefore, both indices moved upwards. The All- Share Price Index went up by 165 points and S and P SL20 went up by 59.9 points. Turnover stood at Rs 4.1 billion with four crossings. Those crossings were reported in Expolanka Holdings, which crossed three million shares to the tune of Rs 690 million and its shares traded at Rs 230, Royal Ceramic one million shares crossed to the tune of Rs 40, its shares traded at Rs 40, JKH 49000 shares crossed to the tune of Rs 33.6 million; its shares traded at Rs 135 and Dialog three million shares crossed to the tune of Rs 27 million, its shares fetched Rs 8.80.

In the retail market top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were; Browns Investments Rs 267 million (32 million shares traded), Lanka IOC Rs 246 million (434,000 shares traded), Sampath Bank Rs 203 million (5.6 million shares traded), Expolanka Holdings Rs 152 million (668,000 shares traded), Hotel Corporations Rs 143 million (5.4 million shares traded), JKH Rs 134 million (969,000 shares traded) and CIC Holdings Rs 121 million (1.3 million shares traded). During the day 158 million share volumes changed hands in 36000 share transactions.Yesterday, the Central Bank’s US dollar buying rate was Rs 358.93 and the selling rate Rs 369.71.Inflation is around 66.75 per cent, which needs to be brought down to a single digit by stablising the rupee against the US dollar.