Friday, January 21, 2011

Retailers drive the market Colombo bourse at new high

Retailers yesterday drove the Colombo bourse to record heights with the All Share Price Index hitting 7,193.10 points, up 134.77 points from the previous day’s trading and above the level of 7,147.77 points it achieved on October 1, 2010, brokers said.

"The market was completely driven by retailers with large volumes of Laugfs Gas and ERI, both the ordinary share and the warrants, traded," a broker said.

Turnover yesterday hit Rs.4.66 billion, up from the previous trading day’s Rs.3.5 billion, with both indices moving up sharply – the All Share by 1.91% and the Milanka by 52.48 points (0.72%) with 121 gainers comfortably ahead of 72 losers.

The day’s business volumes were generated by JKH, Hayleys, Singer Finance, Sierra Cables, Sampath, Dockyards, Central Finance and United Motors in addition to Laughs and ERI.

Laugfs saw over 10.6 million shares done between Rs.40.50 and Rs.51.30 gaining Rs.8.60 to close at Rs.49.60 contributing Rs.512.6 million to turnover.

Brokers said that JKH and Hayleys attracted institutional interest. JKH saw over a million shares done between Rs.292 and Rs.299 gaining Rs.5.40 to close at Rs.298.50 while Hayleys was up Rs.25.60 to close at Rs.390 on nearly 0.8 million shares done between Rs.362 and Rs.390.

The ERI ordinary share gained Rs.11.10 to close at Rs.118 on nearly 2.3 million shares done while its three warrants too showed sharp price gains of between Rs.9.10 and Rs.9.60 with over 2 million warrants done in each category.

Colombo Fort Lands was a hefty gainer, up Rs.55.80 to close at Rs.370 on nearly 0.6 million shares while Singer Finance lost some steam – down a rupee to close at Rs.49.10 on 3 million shares.

Sierra Cables announced that it was investing approximately Rs.250 million in two hotel projects in a joint venture with Free Lanka Capital Holdings.

Much of HVA Foods IPO was sought by applicants who tendered bank guarantees. Sixty four bank guarantees covering 41.6 million shares (nearly Rs.7.07 billion) had been received while 11,805 applicants backed their applications with bank drafts and cheques covering 30.05 million shares (Rs.480.8 million, a Stock Exchange filing said.

source - www.island.lk

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