Representatives of six stock broking firms last week met with the Chairperson of the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and some of its directors and senior managers to discuss recent stock market developments leading to the SEC imposing a 10% price band mechanism on the Colombo share market which some brokers and investors claim has been a damper on the market.
SEC Chairperson Indrani Sugathadasa and senior managers were present at the meeting where both sides exchanged each other’s views and perceptions.
"The meeting was very cordial and it was decided that the broking firms should make written representations on their viewpoints for further consideration by the commission," a participant said.
Since the regulatory direction was imposed, turnover on the CSE has dropped sharply as have prices of some speculative counters that reached levels not backed by fundamentals according to analysts.
A participant at last week’s meeting said they were hopeful that the regulator will look at the issues involved and "we would have some good news soon."
In their Stock Market Weekly covering the week ending August 13, John Keells Stock Brokers reported volatile trading last week "with investor sentiment being somewhat cautious and subdued as market participants adjusted to the imposed trading ban on daily stock prices.’’
Large trades were reported on blue chips like Commercial Bank, JKH and Dialog that had contributed significantly to the turnover.
Activity on speculative midcap stocks was also seen, the report said.
Acuity Stockbrokers noted that ASPI was regaining earlier losses and was last week up one percent (50.72 points) week-on-week.
"However (it) is still lagging compared to the high reached during July," the report said. But the Milanka Index closed the week down 0.26% (???points)
Acuity reported that turnover during the week was down 53.5% to Rs.9.34 billion from Rs.20 billion the previous week with business mainly driven by the banking and financial sectors which contributed 30% of the total turnover for the week.
The banking sector gained 141.8 points during the week with the Commercial Bank contributing the highest turnover of Rs.933.7 million – 10% of the weekly turnover.
ComBank traded last week at a low of Rs.175.10 and a high of Rs.198 gaining 2.4% to close the week at Rs.192.60.
Other significant contributors to turnover were touchwood (Rs.275.4 million), Dialog, ERI and JKH.
Heavily traded stocks last week were Dialog (40.5 million shares), SMB Leasing, Piramal Glass, Touchwood and Nawaloka.
Bairaha Farms which closed at Rs.95 was the top price gainer for the week gaining 37.68% to close at Rs.95.
Other gainers included Malwatte, Grain Elevators and Renuka Holdings while the top losers were Dankotuwa which was down 40.8%, Blue Diamond (voting and non-voting) losing 38.27% and 34.15% respectively.
source - www.island.lk
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