Sri Lanka stocks end weaker

June 20, 2011 (LBO) - Sri Lankan stocks closed 0.13 percent lower Monday with continuous forced selling due to credit issues, brokers said.

The All Share Price Index closed at 7,040.68, down 0.13percent (9.35 points) while the Milanka Price Index of more liquid stocks closed at 6,603.20, up 0.04 percent (2.33 points), according to stock exchange provisional figures.

Turnover was 1.7 billion rupees. There were 82 gainers and 128 losers.

"Forced selling was seen in trading with margin calls coming on several stocks. The credit issue was one of the main reasons," an analyst said.

Broker credit to clients have been restricted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the market regulator, amid fears of a stock market bubble and brokers given time till the year-end to clear credit accounts.

Meanwhile, Capital Alliance Securities head Harinlal Aturupane said a downturn in European markets was unlikely to divert funds to the island.

”I don’t think we can get an advantage of falling European markets, because except Distilleries and Commercial Bank, most of our blue chip stocks are overvalued. So we cannot expect whatever the foreign investor interest as we expected.”

PC House was the highest contributor of the day to turnover and closed at 21.30, up a rupee or 4.93 percent. More than 10 million PC House shares were traded generating 234 million rupees.

Brokers said three million shares of recently listed Swarnamahal Finance changed hands and it share closed at an all time high as 69.90 rupees, up 29.90 rupees or 74.75 percent.

There were two crossings of John Keels Holdings of 335,000 shares at 297 rupees each. JKH closed at 296.70 rupees, down 80 cents.

Ascot Holdings closed at 126.50 rupees up 6.50 or 5.42 percent with a solitary crossing of 154,000 shares at 130 rupees.

Expolanka closed at 12.60 rupees down 10 cents or 0.79 percent with a solitary crossing of 1.5 million shares at 12.90 rupees each.

Bimputh Lanka closed at 103.70 rupees, up 21.70 rupees or 26.46 percent. Industrial Asphalts closed at 482.90 rupees, up 101.90 rupees or 26.75 percent.

Renewed speculative trading was shown in Laxapana Batteries, Ceylon Leather, Asian Alliance and Asia Capital and these shares went up more than 10 percent during the day.

Textured Jersey Lanka, a Hong Kong Sri Lanka joint venture textile firm said it is raising 1.2 billion rupees in an initial public offer by selling 80 million shares at 15 rupees

source - www.lbo.lk