Blue chips lead decline
The Colombo Stock Exchange saw its indices dip once more with blue
chip companies leading the decline. The ASPI skirted below the 1,900
levels but eventually closed at 1,901, down 23 points (-1.2%).
The MPI, which tracks the most liquid stocks in the market, lost 29
points (-1.3%) to end the day at 2,127. Turnover was boosted by large
transactions in AEC (Rs 142.6 million).
LB Finance which has seen some interest in the past few days,
contributed Rs 56.5 million to turnover, while Dialog Telekom which has
been holding its price at Rs 8.00, saw Rs 50.3 million in turnover. Sri
Lanka Telecom closed down at Rs 38.00.
Globally, Japan's Nikkei - 225 was down 7%, while Singapore and Hong
Kong were down 5%. Close to home India's Bombay Sensex was down more
than 3%. Europe opened the day on negative territory on concerns that UK
was going into recession, the second major economy in the region to do
so
In Argentina the government is tapping into workers savings and
pension funds to shore up its banks'. Argentina which defaulted on its
US$95 billion of foreign loans in 2001 has been unable to raise capital
internationally, though it is the second largest economy in South
America with a large agricultural and natural resource base including
oil, natural gas, gold, silver and copper.
Source: First Guardian Equities
|