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| Friday, 11 July 2003 |
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Foreign purchases boost market Foreign buying of shares of the Commercial Bank worth Rs.64.8 million yesterday checked the downward trend of the Colombo Bourse, which prevailed during the last few days. Market sources believe that the buyer is Sri Lankan born US based fund manager Raj Rajaratnam who bought 360,000 Commercial Bank shares at Rs.180 per share. The ASPI increased by 19.1 percent to 958.6 while the Milanka Index increased by 53.6 points to 1,831.7 points. The turnover of the Bourse was Rs.235,134,630 as against the Rs.122,109,118 turnover the previous day. Market sources said about 40 percent of the purchases were by foreign buyers while 75 percent of the total foreign purchases came from Rajaratnam. Another highlight of yesterday's trading was Rs.12 million worth shares of the JKH changing hands. These shares were believed to have been sold by a foreign party. 415,400 shares of the Commercial Bank and 359,800 shares of JKH were traded yesterday. Stock analysts said that the turnaround was expected following the downward trend during the past few days which brought down the ASPI by 180 points. Hasitha Premaratne of HNB Stock Brokers said that a positive response by the LTTE to the government's draft proposal for an interim administration would make a positive impact on the market in the coming days. "This coupled with strong corporate earnings expected to be released towards the latter part of the month could bring back the lost momentum to the market," he said. Anjelo Ranasinghe of Bartleet Mallory Stock Brokers said that there is potential for an upside movement of the indices in the coming week and state institutions with domestic funds should play a leading role in future market activities. (CK) |
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