Bourse tumbles, panic selling

The Plantation sector was the most affected, declining by 12%, while the Oil Palm sector declined by 9%. Both sectors were affected.

Indices at the Colombo Stock Exchange tumbled hard and fast with the ASPI losing 85 points (-4.5%) to end at 1,815, while the MPI lost 93 points (-4.4%) to close at 2,034. The declines were across the board with just four stocks up for the day, while 163 stocks were down. Panic selling was prevalent.

The Plantation sector was the most affected, declining by 12%, while the Oil Palm sector declined by 9%. Both sectors were affected by declining world market prices for rubber, palm oil, and tea.

Kahawatte Plantations saw the biggest decline of the day of 28% to close at Rs 23.50, while Namunukula dropped 22% to close at Rs 20.25. Madulsima Plantations was down 20% at Rs 8.00

Banks, Finance and Insurance and the Diversified Sectors, which represent some of the largest companies declined by 4% and 3% respectively, while the Telecom sector declined by 4%. Sri Lanka's largest Bank Commercial Bank was down 3% at Rs 86.25, while rival Hatton National Bank was down also down 3% at Rs 88.00. Aitken Spence & Company closed down 5% at Rs 360.00, while Richard Pieris & Co closed down 2.5% at Rs 39.00. Carson Cumberbatch & Co was down 8% to Rs 160.00 and John Keells Holdings was down 1% at Rs 64.50. Barring JKH, all the above mentioned diversified businesses have exposure to Rubber, Tea and/or Oil Palm plantations.

Dialog dropped 3% to close at Rs 7.75, while Sri Lanka Telecom closed down 2.5% at Rs 36.00.

Turnover for the day was at Rs 236 million, mainly on transactions in Ceylinco Insurance (Rs 103 million). JKH at Rs 9.9 million and Distilleries at 9.2 million were the other actively traded stocks.