Commercial Leasing and Finance together with tile sector keeps CSE ticking

By Hiran H. Senewiratne

CSE trading activities early yesterday showed a downward trend but later noticed a price appreciation in Commercial Leasing and Finance shares. During the second half of the day, buying interest in the tile sector group showed a significant improvement, resulting in the positive momentum in the bourse continuing, stock market analysts said.

For the first time in the history of the CSE, though, the ASPI surpassed 9,500 points, closing at 9,542.30 points at the day’s end.

The stock market yesterday saw an end to the bull-run, akin to taking a breather, and closed negative with the Central Bank’s short-term Road Map failing to keep recent investor sentiment intact. However, Commercial Leasing and Finance and tile sector counters drove the market to positive territory, market analysts added.

Commercial Leasing and Finance was the highest contributor to the All Share Price Index, contributing 67.2 points. Its shares appreciated by 18 percent or Rs. 4.70. Consequently, its share price shot up to Rs. 31.30 from Rs. 26.60.

Amid those developments both indices moved upwards. The All Share Price Index went up by 100 points and S and P SL20 rose by 7.75 points. Turnover stood at Rs. 3.62 billion with a single crossing. The crossing was reported in Royal Ceramic, which crossed two million shares to the tune of Rs. 94.6 million, its shares traded at Rs. 47.60.

In the retail market, top five companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were, Expolanka Holdings Rs. 568 million (2.9 million shares traded), Browns Investments Rs. 498 million (47.3 million shares traded), RIL Properties Rs. 367 million (39 million shares traded), Royal Ceramic Rs. 279 million (5.9 million shares traded) and Dipped Products Rs. 189 million (3.4 million shares traded). During the day 228.3 million share volumes changed hands in 33000 transactions.

The Sri Lanka rupee rate as against the US dollar rate quoted yesterday was Rs. 199.782, which was the controlled rate set by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to artificially stabilize the price increase of essential food items.