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When the Colombo Bourse indices recorded further declines for the second day of the week yesterday, stockbrokers said that the market should create a hype to attract more public/private sector institutions into trading activities.

"We lack institutional interest on the market right now therefore, this situation has to be corrected," a spokesman for Mallory Bartleet Stockbrokers said.

In yesterday's trading, the ASPI declined to 743.9 points from 746.1 and the Milanka index to 1,246.1 points from 1,240.1. The turnover was Rs. 18.8 million down from Rs. 19.27 million. Stock brokers said that retailers alone cannot push the market further without large big institutional investments.

They said some of the big companies were selling shares for short term gains at a time they should be really investing on stocks. "This is not a good sign at all. For the last few weeks we were putting the blame on the Iraqi war, global uncertainity and local politics. But they do not seem to be the actual reasons for the drop in the market. A leading Fund Manager said that big investors and companies should capitalise the market situation and invest on long-term purposes. "Hotels, Banking and Diversified sector stocks are quite attractive and investments should come in to these areas," he said.

A stockbroker who did not want to be named said that the corporates have performed well during the last financial year and the fundamentals are also correct. "But it's strange that the market is experiencing this downward trend. We shouldn't let this happen," he said.

However, a spokesman for the CT Smith Brokers said that the market sentiment is very low and attributed the decline to global scenario coupled with local buying interest.

"True that the corporates have done well. But now it is in the past. The sluggish market condition has been running for the second month now and it is time for a change," he said. (CJ)

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