Stock market turnover dips to over 3 year low

The Colombo stock market saw very low activity yesterday oday with a turnover of Rs. 91 million being the lowest in more than three years, according to Lanka Securities.

“This might be attributable to the fact that most investors would have taken a day off as tomorrow is a Poya holiday,” it said.
The ASI lost 9.21(-0.26%) points to close at 4,952.93 and the MPI gained 18.67 (0.48%) points to end at 4,404.16 points. S&P index lost 6 points to close at 2,810.37.
Highest contributor to turnover was Aitken Spence with Rs. 20 million to close Rs. 4 higher at 114.90. Next in line was National Development Bank with Rs. 11 million which ended the day flat at Rs. 100. Tokyo cement brought in Rs. 3 million to close flat at Rs. 30.

Swisstech was up 6.6% to close at Rs. 16, Panasian Power rose 4.35% to close at Rs. 2.40 and Browns Investments was up by 3.70% to end at Rs. 2.80.
HDFC lost around 8% to close at Rs. 55.10, Peoples Leasing lost 7% to close at Rs. 10.90 and Regnis lost 5% to close at Rs. 90.
Most active counters for the day were HDFC, HVA Foods and CIC Holdings non-voting.
Foreign participation stood at 22% with a net foreign inflow of Rs. 31 million. It can be assumed that most of these foreign inflows went into either Aitken Spence and/or National Development Bank.