Market gains momentum back

The Stock Market recovered yesterday for the first time after the election, with the ASPI and MPI recording considerable gains.

Once again foreigners were among net buyers buying heavily into blue chips including John Keells and Dialog.

They were also keen on buying Sierra Cables shares which came into the market for the first time yesterday.

Their shares opened at Rs. 3.50 and closed at 3.75.

Bartleet Mallory Stock Brokers Analyst Angelo Ranasinghe said that yesterday's recovery in the indices was a good sign and predicted that the market would continue to behave the same way.

"The decline in the last three days was mainly due to investors who panicked and oversold their shares," he said.

The market was up with both the price indices going up with the All Share Price Index (ASPI) closing the day at 2222.23, which is 62.32 points higher compared to the yesterdays closing. The Milanka Price Index (MPI) closed the day at 2866.12, registering a rise of 85.87 points.

The total equity turnover was Rs. 593.5 million for the day. The net foreign inflows registered Rs. 75 million with foreign purchases recording Rs. 190 million and foreign sales Rs. 115 million during the course of the day.

The total market capitalization was Rs. 681.2 billion for the day which is an increase on Rs. 27 billion. Another investor said that they were somewhat reluctant to invest since they were studying the political developments after the elections. "We are now confident political stability of the country," he said.

(CK)