By Hiran H. Senewiratne

CSE witnessed a negative performance due to a drop in LOLC Group share prices yesterday following a delay in the presentation of the Port City Commission Bill in parliament due to the Covid 19 pandemic situation, stock market analysts said . In this situation sells offs of shares happened mainly in the LOLC Group of companies which has a heavy influence on both indices of stock market analysts said .

Amid those developments both indices showed a downward trend .ASPI price index was down by 99 points and S and P SL20 went down by 36 points .Turnover stood at Rs. 3.02 billion with two crossings .Those were reported in Expo Lanka which crossed 800000 shares to the tune of Rs. 36 .2 million and its share price traded at Rs. 45.50 and TJ Lanka 507000 shares crossed for Rs 20 million and its share price traded at Rs 39.50. In the retail market top five companies that contributed to the turnover were; HNB Rs 1.1billion (8.5million shares trade),Browns Investments Rs 917 million (139 million shares traded ),LOLC Rs 111.7 million (345000 shares traded ),Royal ceramic Rs 91.1 million (2.7 million shares traded )and Dipped Products Rs 80.7 million (1.48 million shares traded ).During the day 195.5 million share volumes changed hands in 17652 transaction .

Lahiru Wickramasinghe, Founding CEO/ Director, Evoke International Limited & Mr.&Siddhartha Roy, COO, Hungama Digital Media

Evoke International Limited recently announced that it had acquired the exclusive Mobile licensing rights of legendary archivist Tissa Nagodavithana’s film collection. The extensive catalogue of Sri Lankan movies spanning many decades will be available for streaming via South Asia’s most popular streaming platform for music & movies HUNGAMA PLAY.

Commenting on the partnership, Founding CEO/ Director Mr. Lahiru Wickramasinghe said: “As a homegrown company we are honored to have obtained the exclusive rights to bring decades-worth of Sri Lankan movies, predominantly Sinhala, to your fingertips through this initiative. We hope this will serve to create a sense of admiration & interest for local cinema among youth.”

Evoke’s partnership with Hungama dates back to 2013. Since then, as the local partner, Evoke has facilitated thousands of Sri Lankans access to HUNGAMA’s elaborate portfolio that includes over 5,000 movies in various languages like English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu etc, 7500+ hours of kids’ content, 150,000+ short format videos across various categories like music, comedy, glamour etc., in addition to original shows across various languages.

Siddhartha Roy, COO, Hungama Digital Media said, “We are glad to partner with Evoke and offer our users easy access to a wide range of Sri Lankan movies. We have constantly worked towards building a diverse library that is multilingual, multi-genre, multi-format and offers users a chance to explore both, global and local content. We are certain that the addition of local movies to our library will make the experience even more enriching for our users.”

“The objective is to make Sri Lankan movies widely accessible to all from anywhere in the world,” The CEO noted, adding: “Evoke recently celebrated 12 years of excellence in Sri Lanka and is planning to foray into other destinations in the foreseeable future. To provide a brief summary of what we do, Evoke is no run-of-the-mill ‘agency’ – We consider us to be a digital services provider that creates unique and engaging solutions to deliver optimum satisfaction & value for money.”

Evoke offers a wide range of innovative, data driven and customer-centric products with their 360 degree in-house development team. Some of their services include Mobile & Web Applications, WAP products, IVR & Voice services, SMSC, Content Aggregation, Content Production and Digital Media.

A special event was organized by AIA Insurance to recognise the Area Development Managers of their Agency Distribution channel for their immense contribution to the company, while also celebrating promotions for some of them.

The event was a celebration of the long-standing success and unwavering commitment of the ‘Area Development Office’ (ADO) channel and a recognition of their significant contributions. AIA’s ADO channel became a part of the overall Agency channel in 2009 and has since played a key role in the company’s business success. The event and the new designations are aimed at promoting entrepreneurial spirit amongst Agency Development Managers while fostering a sense of healthy competition.

The ADO channel has grown gradually during the last decade and currently contributes to 18% of total new business of the overall agency distribution channel. Four ADO Managers were presented with elevated designations based on their performance while the highest new designation was received by Vinol Priyasenarath from the Moratuwa ADO, who was promoted to ‘Associate General Manager – Moratuwa ADO’. There were also two ‘Executive Area Development Manager’ designations and two ‘Senior Area Development Manager’ designations assigned to Dileepa Ameendra from Tissamaharama ADO, Y G G B Yatigammana from Mawanella ADO, Chaminda Gunathilake from Kurunegala ADO & Chaminda Dissanayake from Panadura ADO respectively.

AIA’s Deputy CEO and Chief Agency Officer commended these performers for their “immeasurable contribution to the company and thanked them for setting the path ahead for future success” He further encouraged them to grow their businesses by showcasing the long-term potential of the channel while reiterating their role in delivering AIA’s promise of helping Sri Lankans live healthier, longer, better lives.