Saturday, March 3, 2012

Brokers blame ATS-7 for turnover slump on CSE

The Colombo bourse slumped yesterday posting a disappointing turnover of Rs.403.16 million, down from the previous day’s Rs.2.6 billion, with brokers attributing the downturn to problems with the new trading system installed the previous week.

 Both indices too were down – the All Share by 9.49 points (0.17%) and the Milanka by 18 points (0.38%) with 112 losers outpacing 74 gainers.

The CSE has called a meeting of CEOs of broking firms and brokers on Tuesday to identify the problems they are facing and possible solutions.

"The market was very dull right through the day," a broker said. "The new ATS (Automatic Trading System Version 7) is giving unbelievable trouble."

JKH was yesterday’s most traded stock with over 0.2 million shares done closing 60 cents up at Rs.178.50 followed by Ceylinco Insurance, down Rs.29 to Rs.???? on 25,252 shares and Commercial Bank up 20 cents to close at Rs.100 on nearly 0.2 million shares.

Lion Brewery closed Rs.5 up at Rs.203 on 65,095 shares.

J.L. Morison Son & Jones announced an interim dividend of Rs.1.50 per share for both voting and non-voting shares for 2011/12 XD from March 14 and payment on March 23 while Ceylinco Insurance announced a first and final dividend of Rs.6.50 per share for both voting and non-voting shares following shareholder approval at a March 30 AGM. The share will trade XD from April 2 with payment on April 11.

Colombo Dockyard announced capitalization of reserves with one new ordinary share issued for every existing twenty shares held, XC from March 23 with allotment on March 22. Slightly over 3.4 million new shares will be issued in this connection with reserves capitalized at the rate of Rs.10 for a new share.

Both Access Engineering, which earlier this week bought control of Sathosa Motors, and Distilleries subsidiary Melstacorp, making a mandatory offer for Aitken Spence, disclosed in stock exchange filings that they have been adding to the big blocks already acquired with small purchases on the CSE trading floor.

These purchases were at the same price paid for the big blocks.

source - www.island.lk

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